"1) ditching Amarok for Clementine ( while you can change it because Amarok is no longer priority your forced to maintain it from out side the repo if you want modern bits of it)"
lots of people complained about amarok and wanted clementine, so this was a simple decision to make, i never used amarok or clementine enough to miss them, i use deadbeef
"2) lack of 64 bit ver or native PEK support (modern systems often have more than 4GB of ram, I need more today,....)"
it is not easy to make a 64 bit distro, but it is comming, you can install the beta if you want
"3) lack of package and hardware support ( more and more if you want something that has become available to linux you being forced to go out side the PClin repo, and it do not suport alot of modern hardware that many distros do )"
i only have seen that with drivers for printers, that sometimes cannot be added to repos for the licenses they have, sometimes no one asked to be added to the repo or nobody helped to add it, you know that pclinux is made by volunteers, working in their free time with their own resources, their own pcs
"4) the UI is being steered retro/mac ( More and more the OOTB setting are some wired clone of win 95 the and OS X, end of the day less and less good KDE, and more and more lets try and look like others.... well the degree with which you have to tweak and retweak to undo this... you better off to use another distro.... yes you will need to tweak over there to but when done you will have a distro that is more widely supported)"
that is a matter of taste, you can edit the de you use the way you want, you can access kde look to install as much modifications as you want, we are not limited to the repos only, you can see that in my monthly screenshots, my desktop doesn't look like windows, osx or another linux desktop
i do what i want with the style of my desktop and you should do the same but you choose to say that you don't like and doesn't mention what you have done to change it
"But if you have a new system, and are doing a fresh install..... you will ask your self a few steps in HEYYY! happened."
i did that last month, all went as expected with a exception of a video card problem that can't be fixed because the video card itself is damaged
"I have a new laptop, and after the PAIN it was on my friends system a not even looking at it for new installs any more... I am getting closer to what my 07 rolled update PClin box is it was starting with another distro with far less effort. It is sad to see, but it is what it is."
you keep talking about general details, nothing specific we can discuss or agree, so we won't
"I do not know why the distro is in love with what it is these days, but it is

"
honestly, you are complaining about changes that are normal to a rolling release distro, if this is the case, why did you choose to use a rolling release distro if you don't like to see things change?
if you have been here for so long, you know why some things have been made the way it has been done, complain now about changes and problems with new hardware doesn't have much sense, specially knowing that linux will always change fast and always will have problems with new hardware for know reasons, lack of manufacturer support
anyway, we are offtopic now