Has Nikon Gone Forward or Backwards Like a Crab With D7100??

I guess is still too soon to determine that, i know it will take a couple of weeks or months to determine this, i am sure people are just starting to learn and figure out this camera for it's best settings.  So far photo samples people are showing don't seem THAT THAT great, so far I have seen photos of an old window, blurry/soft people pictures, some look pretty sharp but not mind blowing to want to spend $1200 on this body just as i did with my previous D7000.

Some folks have mentioned the grany situation and have said that is okay when applied some noise reduction BUT then you loose some datail, so what would be the point in getting this D7100 if the photo does not come out "clean" and we would be applying noise reduction??  What would be the point of this camera vs. the D7000???  Regarding AF some said it seems "the same" as their D7000 and not any faster or better or the same as their D300 or D700.  So is it, or is it not?  I mean, it is the year 2013.

Again, i know it will take some time to analize this camera output and i am not in a hurry to buy this camera, but from the stuff i have read and seen it just make me wonder how this compares to the rest of the competition.  Are Sony, Canon and Fuji's photos outputing the same sharpness with GRAIN??  I know those Fuji cameras are EXTREMELY clean for sure with awesome colors and people seem to love them and i am starting to wonder if all this is (completely new) to Nikon, meaning producing a simple sharp camera output.  I guess within the next couple of months i will decide where i want my incometax return to be spent