Something I don't understand........

There's several reasons. TPH already mentioned the desire for quality, which Wheel seems eager to not put out.

The themed weeks get criticized because the puzzles are forced to fit that theme -- and a lot of the time end up disjointed or otherwise something that Google doesn't turn up.

Same goes for the Trip Puzzle -- namely, the fact it only offers trips means the writers are "handcuffed". We have a topic about how those get just plain terrible. They're usually overly-specific, contrived, or corporate phraseology (like with the Sandals Weeks this season).

My personal "Yeah, I'm done." moment was their dub-fest last season/Summer, robbing everybody out of Charlie's final eight weeks because they think we're goldfish and thinking anybody except Jim was sub-par to the point of "NOT FOR RERUN" unless the dubbing came back (or they just plain didn't want to pay royalties).

[Edited 9/25/13 to fix link to thread #3210. It was mistakenly still pointing to WOFL instead of BAV.]

They dubbed over Charlie supposedly because "it would've been too sad to hear his voice so close to his death", apparently thinking that we believe that they still tape entirely in airing order. They then dubbed Jim over the other guest announcers to "establish" him-although he already was pretty much established on the show during the tryout period-and from April 18, 2011 onwards (I remember reading somewhere that the decision to hire him for permanent was made back in March of that year).

It's like what Pat said on Sony Rewards about the most skilled players not always being the top winners being the reason why the concept of returning players was retired (although that's not a very good defense of why returning champions was removed). Then again, I can see that a possible reason we don't have returning champions anymore is because it probably wouldn't work with all the stuff that's been added to the show (e.g. the $100,000 Bonus cash and later the Million-Dollar Wedge, 1/2 Car, keeping all Bonus prizes in play all week, etc.)

As for the Trip Puzzle, don't get me started on how blatant some of them can be (e.g. GLEAMING WHITE SAND BEACH, TOTALLY AWESOME WATER PARK, WHERE DO I PICK UP MY SKI-LIFT TICKETS?, among various others).

The show is constantly evolving and yes I would agree it feels like every prize has a sponsor. Its getting to the point where I'm thinking Pat's going to begin each round by saying "And this round is sponsored by..." But the show is making a ton of cash by all these sponsors because of the mass audience. But Wheel continues to be the number 1 show in its time slot in so many markets and is still the number 1 show in syndication. I'm sure the producers care about viewer feedback but as long as they're bringing in mass amounts of cash and have a big lead while in the top spot then they'll keep up what they're doing. But I think a lot us continue to love the show despite having some pet peeves yet I also think while we may be a little ticked at the show in its existing state it won't stop evolving that in a few years from now we'll be thinking how much we missed the shows from these years. I remember thinking how I disliked the amount of evolution in the early-mid 2000s, now I'm missing those shows.

Ever since the show switched to blue/green neon for the set, the appearance of the show has become dull and boring. The fact that the neon on the set is all either blue, green, or purple, with the rest of it being giant video screens makes it look cheap.
As for the audience, on most episodes prior to Season 8 (particularly during the shopping era), it was common to hear the audience cheer the contestants during Wheel spins, and an appropriate reaction when it landed on notable spots (such as the top dollar value, or Bankrupt if the contestant had a lot of money in his/her bank).
As for limiting the prize offerings, that may be because trips and cars are what contestants usually want, but I'm sure there's various other things that could be offered that some contestants might find useful.
...And yet they've tired so hard to make it look like they still tape entirely in airing order (especially when they dubbed over Charlie following his death), yet sometimes the ruse is given away (such as Pat saying that a $100,000 win occurred recently).
Totally agree with this one. Instead of admitting that they tape out of order and that Charlie had already announced another eight weeks worth of shows that had yet to air, the show about-faced and dubbed over all those weeks, claiming that "it would've been too sad to hear Charlie's voice so close to his death". I can imagine that they probably told Jim Thornton that "we just announced your hiring to the public, and we want to establish you on the show, so we need you to dub over the other guest announcers." While that may be more understandable than the "too sad to hear Charlie so close to his death" claim, but like I said, Jim was already pretty much established during his tryout period.
Ironic that the show went from being (allegedly) "tired and dated" to dull and boring during the past decade and a half. What's also ironic is that his bio page on the show's website says that “He keeps ahead of the curve with innovative game elements, theme weeks and the latest technology.” While that may be so, the theme weeks and Trip Puzzles handcuff the puzzle writers into making puzzles that are so blatant and contrived, it's not even funny. The "innovative game elements" such as the 1/2 Kia and the $100,000 and $1,000,000 Bonus Prizes have put a bit of a strain on the show's budget, forcing them to come up with increasingly difficult Bonus puzzles.

BTW, seriously, I don't know what the show was thinking in regards to the implementation of Vanna for a "Day". Nothing against Katie Cantrell's performance, but two Rounds + car pose after the Speed-Up ≠ Day.

Notice how simple yet enjoyable the Big Month of Cash was? That, I feel, was Wheel of Fortune plain and simple without anything getting in the way. I agree with not only MarioGS's statement about the "golden era", but also its open-endedness—I end it earlier, around the mid-1990's. (The multi-template fan in me wants to put it at when the wheel was changed to a single template, but that's nowhere near the final nail in the coffin.)

Wheel of Fortune, I feel, needs to be more like Jeopardy!. (I disagree with what seems to be the majority opinion that the current J! set is crap—I like it. It's a nice, modern, eye-pleasing set.) When they change it up, they still try to keep the basic feel the same. Watch the Trebek premiere, then watch a current episode—the latter is more exciting and more interesting, and not just because of the doubled dollar values.