Is the Ribbon a panacea? Absolutely not. But I'd respectful disagree with anyone who claims it is "just as bad" as the old toolbars. They made a lot of accessibility improvements and reduce the training curve substantially.
Meaning with the graph design toolbar, it would be visible, but do absolutely nothing until a graph is selected. With the Ribben it appears when the graph is selected.
I don't see how a disabled toolbar, with no clue how to enable it, helps with user training or clarity.
'This is what I want...hmm...how do I make it work?' is a far easier process than 'I can't find what I want...where on earth is it?..does it even exist?'
I had a relative who ran a mailmerge to print some address labels once a month, which apart from the odd letter was all he did with Word. Without fail after Word 2007 (IIRC the one the Ribbon arrived in) I'd get a monthly call, that usually became long and painful, trying to let him print his labels. Few months later, I visited and put back his old copy of 2003. :)