To be fair, these complaints -- those you bulleted -- validate the poor star-rating. I can't imagine a majority (Re: 2.5+ stars) being given to an application that more-or-less tucks away all of these smartphone features.
That describes like 1,000+ apps with the word "launcher" in their title, and yet a lot of them are 4+ stars https://play.google.com/store/search?q=launcher&c=apps
Oh well, they thought they could simply "take over" the entire, front-facing experience of the phone. They probably would have had better success trying their hand at releasing a better widget, surfacing the same experience without removing the notifications bar, apps tray, etc. Being resizable and able to coexist with other widgets (eg. 1x4 Search, 4x4 FB, 1x4 App tray) would appear to be a lot more welcoming.
The 4+ star rated launchers add functionality to android.
For example, I use Nova Launcher, and when you first install it, it's entirely identical to the default launcher. Most people using my phone don't even know that it's not the default.
WHAT?! Why on earth would they do that? Knowing my battery and cell tower status is important!
But I think this is also the reason that they chose to start with the Samsung platform, because they (my NoteII at least) allow you to swipe from the top edge to display the notification bar (yes, even with Home).
* Doesn't support folders for apps, so you have to swipe through a limited number of pages to organize your apps, or go to a full listing of your apps
* The full listing of apps has a low scrolling speed/momentum, so if you have a lot of apps it takes a lot of time to get to the bottom
Presumably the final Facebook phone will have a very short list, so app sorting/scrolling features would be simplified for convenience and intuitiveness... I mean, what apps do hardcore Facebook fanboys need besides Facebook?
It does seem like Facebook skipped a step here... I mean, look at the massive suite of web-applications that MS put together before debuting their WinPhone7 thing. With Facebook's experience in webapps and their gigantic post-IPO warchest, I'd expect to see a Facebook branded answer to the MS's Live/Skydrive webapps and Google's family of products alongside the phone so they could offer a fully no-Google-account Android system.
But yeah, that other stuff is pretty damning.
I have zero interest in Facebook Home. But I can recognize that it is interesting and useful to some.
Let the seller beware - though, it's not like poor ratings from the get go from a proportion of the users would really hit these giants much.
* Only useful if you live and breath Facebook; it makes email and texts and phone calls second class citizens
* Removes all your widgets
* Would be better as a lock screen than a launcher
* Hides notification bar
* Quick Select only shows Facebook apps (and the most recent app)
It seems like a lot of complaints are from people who didn't really understand what they were installing ("Hey, I like Facebook! Let's try it!"), and were surprised when it turned their phone into a Facebook phone.
A lot of people seem to really like it, too, though.