I think I see the points that both @_aaya & @adventured are trying to make.(Either of you guys please correct my recapitulations if I misunderstood.)

I think @_aaya is saying that: while the initial landing may be intimidating for any given visitor, those who are able to take control of the chaos via his/her features will have a rich experience.

I think @adventured is talking about the "customer-lifecycle"(to use a fun buzzword.) since "customer lifecycle" is measured in seconds/milliseconds on the internet, the already important nature of first-impressions get magnified due to the smaller volume of opinions that can be garnered before people just leave.

My opinion: First impressions are critical, especially on the internet. This site clearly has a lot of promise, but may catch on better/faster if there were some tweaks to the beginning of the user-experience.