Boydie
I am also really disappointed with Izotope on this "upgrade" and I think they may have shot themselves in the foot a bit
I understand the disappointment. We expect upgrades to be "what you had before and more". That's certainly a reasonable expectation.
However, I can also understand Izotope's point of view. The whole concept of "mastering" has been quite vague, really since the end of the vinyl era. That technology required very specialized skills to get the most and best sound out of the physical limitations of a needle dragging through a groove.
In the digital realm, "mastering" has taken on different meanings to different people, and much of what one person calls "mastering", another person includes in his normal mixing process. On that basis, I definitely see the logic of removing functions that clearly should not be in the mastering phases (reverb and gating). If you are adding verb at the mastering phase, you are trying to cover something up.
And likewise, Steinberg's "mastering" product includes restoration tools. Again, that really should not be part of mastering. If you have clicks, pops, and hum in the tracks going to master, that is hopeless. Izotope quote rightly (imho) puts these into a separate product (RX4), which is brilliant by the way.
I am sure that if I had purchased Ozone 5 and was dependent on some of the tools they have removed, I would be unhappy. But I see why they did it. They aren't upgrading each and every tool. They are upgrading the process/workflow of the real mastering job.