Discussions, post-mortems, analysis, inflated egos, and all that jazz.

That's a strange question. I consider myself a "true HotA player" and I don't play SoD at all.
I simply don't like many of the things that are present in SoD, but have been fixed or reworked in HotA.

I agree; I haven't played SoD in quite a while and can't imagine what would make me play even one game.
In SoD, a fairly large percentage of generated maps are either buggy or unplayable for one of the players (blocked paths, a poorly designed road network, etc.). When you find time to play, you want to have a good game and enjoy the process, not stare at 20 gnolls in the starting army and a one-way road. In HotA, at least there's always a more or less balanced road network and a decent starting army. Not to mention that HotA itself is much more diverse and has a lot of useful features that simply make the gameplay more enjoyable.
And yes, I don't think this is "casualizing" the game. It's about creating more equal conditions for both players, but it's not about simplifying the game. After all, with a good road network and a good starting army, you simply have to play aggressively and take objectives and fight difficult guards much earlier.
Of course, everything I've said is just my opinion