The critics are wrong: KDE 4 doesn't need a fork (ars technica)

the problem here is that you are basing your judgment of KDE4 on KDE4.0. KDE4.0 was the very
first release of KDE4. Since it contained massive amounts of new code, it has some rough edges
and not all the new functionality is up & running yet.

Or in other words: could you base your opinion of KDE3 on KDE3.0 alone?

"Visually, I see progress, but for usability and work-flow. It is just terrible"

While that might be true for 4.0, I can already see the groundwork for new features that will
bring massive boost to efficiency and workflow. And again: what you can see at the moment is
KDE4.0 and few betas of 4.1, hardly enough material to conclude that KDE4 sucks as far as
usability and workflow is concerned.