First.... i14 was an incredible hit and I have had an incredible time playing in some of the arcs. The biggest draw-back, and IMHO the single biggest thing that will kill the concept, is the total lack of salvage drops appropriate to the adversaries we face in these new stories.
Once people who do care about the invention system see no actual useable salvage drops then most of us that are IO manufacturing addicts will quit the new Architect missions and return to the hum drum, and increasingly boring content of the game to get our salvage drops to make the neater stuff.
Good luck with the new concept....it just needs a little fine tuning to make it really awesome. :-)