I'm sorry, but when I pay money for a game, I don't expect a half baked, stripped down product.
In reality, all isn't so rosy and is instead outright dreadful. Even though you pay money, you still don't get features that were promised a long, long time ago.
The lack of Mass Transit is also a problem. If you don't think that it is a problem, you should try living in Los Angeles and see what life is like without a decent mass transit system (actually, I sorta take that back, LA has been improving it's mass transit, but regardless if you don't have a car, then you gotta walk). I honestly can't imagine myself building a car clogged, pedestrian swarming city.
Alot of die hard, zealous players have been preaching about "just give it some time, things will get better." Hosh posh. If the game isn't ready now, I dread to think what these "updates" would bring. You shouldn't release a game if it is stripped down and barebones. That is called a SCAM. It is like ordering a Whopper and Burger King and getting only half a whopper, with the employee saying that they'll give you the rest in tiny tidbits several months from now. If somebody did that to me, I'll throw my half-Whopper right back at them and never come back again.
Which leads me to the conclusion that I will be very wary of future MC products. City Life was a decent game yes. But Cities XL built up so much hype from the Sim City 4 crave and pretty much blew it.
All I can say is
1) I hope that Tropico 3 is decent to make up for the shortcomings of this game.
2) Please EA andMaxis, make Sim City 5 for the love of all things holy.