Thanks for the feedback John, but I second @tommy4st 's comment above. Telling users to install a different theme is a mitigation for an unwanted feature, not a fix. It could easily be solved with a toggle switch to enable/disable it.
Ghost 4.0 added new functionality which is specifically inline with what we have always set out to do: Create platform for professional publishing
Both your original blog post talking about WordPress-lite (which I championed for ages!), and your original kickstarter page, make no mention of “professional publishing”. That HEY World recommendation is surreal after you read those pages.
[…] If you want to have a Ghost for a personal blog, that’s fine too - but our product has never been hobby-blogging, and honestly is not the best choice for that use-case anyway.
Unfortunately, that is news to us. Ghost was always billed as “Just a Blogging Platform”. And it happened to be the best one, because of you and your team’s dedication to focus, performance, and usability.
It’s your platform, all we can do is offer suggestions. But v4 is a step backwards for a number of your users. I guess that’s just how software development always goes. Se a vida é!