I don't think anyone was defending the decision so I find your reply fairly bizarre. And the episodes aren't bad - just wasted potential.
Except that I do, in fact, find most of the first half of FMA to be bad. From after the Alchemist's exam to Maes Hughes leaving, it's just... not good. Fillery, pointless and unentertaining. The first ep of Brotherhood was also bad. It suffered from the same exact flaws that the first half of the first anime had, except even moreso. Honestly, if RANDOM CHIBI is supposed to be funny, then I'm fine with not having a sense of humor.
The animation wasn't even as top notch as people said it was and it was just a wankfest of fanservice instead of a solid first episode.
My point was that I hate when people say that something takes so and so amount of episodes to get good and still try and call it a good show. I misunderstood you slightly, but it still does apply to FMA as a whole. It's why the first series is a 7/10 for me instead of much higher. The second half was at least a 9/10. If the first episode of Brotherhood is representative of the whole, pacing and humorwise, then it really puts me off watching the rest.