Yeah, that's a problem. The blocks, not the idea.
As far as 1.9 is concerned, I'm just not feeling it. They simply haven't done anything that makes me feel "woo-hoo". Fixing water on glass is awesome, but not "I can't wait to upgrade earth shockingly awesome".
The new blocks are ugly in their default color scheme. The end is no more exciting (other than for exploring). The new End Fortress things are kinda dumb and pointless. The chests don't contain anything worth taking the risk for. The only block I care about are the new End Rod, which can be crafted with chorus fruit and blaze rods. Which means we're gonna need a blaze farm!
It's like 1.9 hasn't really been thought out very hard. I wonder if Microsoft came in and said "keep it dirt simple and save the awesome for 2.0."
I don't much care, really.