I think it's the opposite. Angular1 was obviously dead on it's feet, and I respect Angular2 for admitting that. If anything I wish they had gone further and cleaned up some of the other smells around the Angular ecosystem.

My real problem with Angular is it's not great for either beginners or experts. There's so much boilerplate and Angular concepts a beginner needs to learn to use the framework well and for experienced developers that stuff tends to get in your way.