having let it sit for a few weeks...

Whatever is the Current Rage On The Internet is often more amusing than it is informative.

Gas attacks in Syria, the US potentially entering into a civil war where other major world powers would back the opposition (sounds familiar), high unemployment… and Black Templar players complaining that they got treated with massive disrespect.  Why?  Because they no longer get their own codex, despite being updated sooner than expected by being included in the new Space Marine 'dex.  Sisters of Battle players are playing them the violin.

Ah, the internet, the great equalizer – the place where everyone thinks they’re the smartest, but acts like children.

Black Templars were my first marine army.  I realized that the Dark Eldar that I was given for near-free was a highly aggressive fast play-style army that needed too much game knowledge and luck to play well, i had decided to go with another list... something that was a little less lightning-stroke and a little more inexorable rolling boulder.  I had it down to two choices, as much for easy paint jobs and neat aesthetics as for their play-style: the Black Templars and the Iron Hands.  Sometimes, I wish I'd gone with the Iron Hands, since their bionics are really neat looking, and since I'd now have a functioning chapter of augmented nasties... but i dove into the Armageddon Codex and started collecting the Templars pretty readily.

Had I not caught the project fever by the time they got their own codex, I’d have been playing them continuously after they expanded.  By then, though, I had Dark Eldar lightning strike, Word Bearer summoning spam, and Deathwing Terminator frustrations all taking precedence in my queue of projects.  Their codex was the first new-army codex since I had begun playing the game in earnest, expanded from the rules I used in the Armageddon supplement.  There was so much new stuff, and so much to do with it all. 

Then, they were left neglected.  Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t the only ones.  Fantasy Dwarves are using a book older than any other, and Sisters of Battle don’t even have a book anymore.  BT got their ‘dex before the Dark Angels got their first full-length one (the mini-splat came out in 3rd before i began playing, and the 2nd ed Angels of Death was out in 2nd), but were left to wait another six months after DA's new mediocrity to find out they weren’t even retaining their book.

Having your chapter/build/subset with its own codex is a benefit -- it means that you get new toys, have a distinct flavor of play, more options, and some strong (though some stronger than others) directions for excellence.  the Dark Angels' new codex added Black Knights, Deathwing Knights, two unique landspeeder variants, a host of new wargear, and new abilities for existing units.  I wonder if Black Templar players were hoping for the same treatment in their new book, instead of getting that treatment in a less unique manner by being part of the SM 'dex.

There is tons of fluff in various sources about the variant chapters – the Space Wolves and their tribal system, the Inner Circle of the Dark Angels, the Sanguinary priesthood of the Khorne… ah, I mean Blood Angels.  There are numerous units listed within that fluff, or tech detailed within the feel and flavor of each that give them their distinctness.  Whether that distinct flavor has come from being separated in an effort to be more distinct, or has caused them to be separated and that distinctness noticed, that's another issue.  

Still, there's fluff and text to back up the decisions, often coming out of the popularity of the chapters.  That fluff can have a strong effect on the perception of players -- one of the chief complaints about the semi-useless Nephilim Jetfighter is that it’s little like the air superiority fighter mentioned in other sources (of course, the price tag of the kit, and of the unit, are louder complaints, but you always get that with such hobbies).

Black Templar, as opposed to the larger divergent chapters, have little additional material to delve into for new units or expansion.  Given their limitations in the last codex, they were little more than a large book on a small topic.  I suppose it’s because as much got added to them as got added to the other mini-‘dexes: the DA/BA/SW pamphlets that passed off as specific chapter codexes were tiny, but they each were about the size of the entire Armageddon supplement – and that contained multiple army lists and a campaign.

If you expand five pages into an entire large book, it gets watered down.  That might be why BT have never fared as well as others.  As a concept, they are great.  but when it comes down to a pragmatic look at where they were before the new release, they were mini-splat material -- they have one special HQ, and one unique variance that applies to two units (the ability to take scouts within crusader squads and bike squads).  you don't need a hundred-page book to review that.