YMMV / Lost Mine of Phandelver

• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Similar to the anniversary re-release of Tyranny of Dragons, the announcement that Phandelver and Below would be adjusting and expanding on the original Lost Mines section was criticized after release for being more or less just some minor adjustments to descriptions and text instead of tweaking elements to make it fit better with how later parts of the game and meta have been shaped. What differences exist are so minimal that it made people not want to purchase what essentially is hardly a worthwhile amount of content.
• Obvious Beta: A bit. The module was originally used for playtesting. During playtest for 5th Edition, player characters had more hit points than in the finished game, which was not adjusted for in the published module, resulting in the first encounter being extremely deadly.
• Sequelitis: The original Lost Mines is considered one of the best introductory methods of getting someone into tabletop games, let along Dungeons & Dragons, even with flaws present. Phandelver and Below is considered a step down in quality as a "sequel" or expansion to the original, lacking the same strengths the original version had, while trying to turn a simple way to ease players in, into a more complex module.
• The Woobie: Mirna Dendrar has got to be Phandalin's unluckiest woman. She was only a little girl when Mt. Hotenow erupted, taking out Neverwinter and unleashing a zombie plague upon her home of Thundertree, costing her family's heirloom necklace. As an adult, when she, her husband, and children moved to Phandalin, the Redbrands came into existence and bullied Mirna in particular. When her husband tried to stand up to the Redbrands, the Redbrands murdered him in cold blood in front of the whole town, stole his corpse, and kidnapped Mirna and her children to either sell them into slavery (the original version) or ransom them off to their Neverwinter relatives (the rewrite). By the time the adventurers arrive, she and her children have been tormented for an in-game week and Mirna's husband has been eaten by a nothic as Mirna can horribly find out. Considering that her escape from the Redbrands' Hideout is an Escort Mission, odds are, she and/or her kids can possibly die attempting to get to safety. If saved by the adventurers, she'll inform them of her necklace, where they can sell it for 200 gp with zero consequences, denying Mirna closure.