Those are features. Besides not giving my N10 back after showing it to her, my mother also wanted to know how to get her calendar to show up on her lock screen. It does have value and isn't just cosmetic. That I can check my email and calendar by simply turning on the screen is very valuable to me. Additionally the clock now includes the additional functionality that CM had just added (though I don't think the code is shared amongst them).
Besides, I was referring to small UX/UI details (new swipeable gestures, new bits of polish here and there, new icons for core apps, new even smoother/slicker/amazing multitasking animations [much less disorienting than 4.1 in my opinion], etc).
I'm personally quite aware of the Bluetooth, etc bugs (though I can't reproduce battery issues on ANY of my Nexus devices, it's obviously an issue). They're obviously problematic. I understand why they replaced the Bluetooth stack but they didn't do a very good job of it.