If you liked GbG before the changes how did you not like farming? All GbG was is farming and still is for the most part. Just saying. I understand some like GvG and it was ok, would have liked it better if it was not just once a day at the exact same time each and every day. Otherwise, the bots ruined it totally.
The 1 important time of day was one of it's most appreciated features provided you could make that 1 time. It meant you didn't have to live in the game. Just show up once a day - and if you were a GvG guild other people would show up at that time too to make it more of a social experience.
Its biggest downfall was not being able to handle power creep madness. The further it went the less "fighting" was anything more than rapidly clicking - the toughest GvG fight, a boosted HQ in industrial+ map, was still basically a low-attrition GBG fight (around 23-24 attrition). Running out of rogues, frequently an occurrence for a heavy fighter in the early days, wasn't really a threat anymore to motivate trying to manage things better.
While it's understandable with GBG they wanted to open it up to people not able to get on at 1 specific time of day, the 4 hour locks can be draining. Basically demanding that you have *someone* be online in the game around the clock.