Yes, they did. Game was most fun back then. MLG lobbyhobbing quickscopers with 4.5 K/Ds inflated by pubstomps were suddenly matched against people of their skills, and suddenly they had to face to fact they are not Gods on Earth. Newcomers were able to not die every second in noob-friendly lobbies with much slower gameplay. Average/slighty-above-average players would have hard fought and close battles among similarly skilled people. Suddenly, people weren't alternating 0.33 matches with 5.67 K/D ones, but ratios were starting to normalize a bit, as you'd always find people around your skill level to make every match exciting, balanced and fun.
Fun? Balance? That's not what the online game communities are about, most of them are only in this to show their epeen to the world and prove they are some godlike champions because they can murder the shit out of people who just bought the game last night. That's what COD (and most online games) are to most people. The blowback was largely predictable, and chances are no COD will try this again in quite some time. If anything I can see them slowly phase this into future games, but the community reacts poorly to everything that makes them die more than once every 5 enemy encounters, and balancing would definitely ensure this.
