Although the new sketches use claymation instead of puppets, I don't consider that an insult to Henson's memory. He also created claymation and cartoons during Sesame Street's early years, after all!
And clay figures used for animation are called "Puppets." Besides... we got 2-D traditional animated Muppets (Little Muppet Monsters, Muppet Babies, Fraggle Rock, the opening credits to FTB...), and CGI Muppets (the twiddlebugs). This would be the first official clay muppet production (Robot Chicken and Stankervision don't count).
True enough, but "Journey to Ernie" was pretty predictable; it had no real plot (big mistake #1), and it kept Ernie separated from Bert (big mistake #2). The "Great Adventures" clip in the preview felt more like the Bert/Ernie sketches I saw as a kid, so it might have more staying power.
I give them credit for trying to make it better the last 2 seasons it was on. That first version was brutal, repetitive, and the addition of "bonus clips" lenghtened the segment too too much. In fact, I think they got everything the way it should have been just before they ended it. Journey to Bert, the apperance of Bob in the B museum... they really wanted to make it a lot better than it had been.
Reminds me of Legion of Superheroes. It was dull and uninterresting, lacking direction in season 1, but season 2 made the show interresting... and it was cancelled.