I've been playing the series since 7 (the first one released in the States), and have played all the English releases since then (if you count playing the first ~4 chapters of Shadow Dragon before getting bored and never picking it up again), plus translated ROMs of 4 and 6. I seem to be in the minority of "veterans" who really enjoyed Awakening, and I consider it to be among my favourites in the series (along with 10 and 4).
I do understand a lot of the flaws that FE veterans see in FE: very poor map design and bland map goals, cliched characters, uninspired story, unlimited grinding (was also a complaint for 8), self-insert avatar overshadowing the main lord, etc. and so forth. But the game as a whole is fun and stands on its own, and I enjoy many of the things that it added to the series. It wasn't deep, but it was fun, and definitely has the highest replay value of all the FE games.
I feel like IS is taking a bold step in the right direction with the split modes of FEif. Hoshido can deliver the simplicity and ease that newcomers primarily liked in Awakening, whereas Nohr will usher in a return to earlier aspects of the game with more detailed objectives, grittier story, removing unlimited grinding, etc. Personally, I plan on playing and enjoying both modes, as well as the mysterious 3rd version (which is apparently going to be between the other two in difficulty and I am crossing my fingers so hard in hopes that it will be a "conquer erryone" path because that would be super fun) Though I admit that I'm more intrigued in the Nohr version if I had to pick one over the other. And not just because Marx is the hottest guy we've seen so far.