The negative turnaround for the Vita is quite a surprise to me. When the price was announced at E3, everybody was happy and the press applauded it.
Except for the 3DS price cut and the two Mario games not much happened between the announcement and the release and the Vita launch games were good and plenty, too. There were expensive memory cards, but at least here in Germany it was super easy to find a deal where you'd get one for free. When the Vita hit the market most editors were already down on it, and not just because they were iOS believers or 3DS fans.
The post launch period wasn't good and I expected more software, especially on PSN, from Sony. I expected the Minis to have trophy support by now, so they're fully integrated with Vita, and of course I expected PS1 games to be playable much closer or at launch. On that side of the fence, I can totally understand the frustration. But from a pure price viewpoint I really don't get how people have turned from being high on the device to being sour.