If the staff is truly interested in making this site better it is time that you looked at other forums. Reinventing the wheel will get you nowhere if no one likes it. There was nothing at all wrong with the old sit other than being written in obsolete code.
Look at IRV2 forums, Keystone forums and The RV Forum Community. All well liked, easy to use and used by lots of people that got tired of the Good Sam site that was deteriorating so much it was a pain to use. Whoever thought of the current format here was probably never near a good forum. I can understand wanting to stand out in the crowd but this site now stands out for all the wrong reasons.
There are many people here trying desperately to have a good site again. Sometimes it is better to admit a mistake and fix it instead of expecting us to get used to it. If the site fails it will not be due to members it will be due to "What is wrong with them? We love how we made the site" kind of attitude. Don't be an Edsall.