FWIW, I (and the wife and her two sisters) loved the show.
Part of it may also have to do with the fact that I was forced to put the camera down when we saw it (strictly no photography then), so I was able to concentrate on the show. Snapping away photos makes it much more difficult (for me, at least) to concentrate on the show, and overall enjoyment can easily go down.
As for the puppeteers, this is no different that the Lion King Broadway show - some of the same people were involved (same puppet designer?). If you get hung up on that, then yes, you won't enjoy it, but it actually works fairly well, I thought.