From a "being a forum member" point of view since the earliest days of forums, including being staff on a few, I love logging in one day to find a nice upgrade was done. It's a pleasant surprise, nothing scary or shocking that sends me to the corner biting my fingernails in trepidation.
Or nice surprises during holidays...such as "snow effects" at Christmas time, or stuff like that..nice to just log in and be welcomed by that change.
As for how some new forums have "reputations" and "post counts" and "reaction scores"...take it for what it's worth. Sometimes fun, sometimes...who the flying F cares.