Gosh. I'm pretty astonished to see the designer of, say, Mascarade describing base Dominion as too simple. Besides, I'm definitely in the camp of playing games which are only as complicated as they need to be, rather than games which are only as simple as they need to be. I'll play Istanbul rather than Agricola, for example or, closer to home, Kingdom Builder rather than Terra Mystica. I'll even play Trans America rather than Ticket to Ride. I like deep and subtle gameplay, but that's no reason for the rules not to fit on the back of a postage stamp.
Meanwhile, often at a games event I'll be mustering up a group to play Dominion. We'll be discussing which expansions to play, then someone who's played never before, perhaps once or twice, will join us. Immediately, I will scale back which cards we use. Many of the cards in recent sets are way too daunting for beginners.
For reference I know someone - and they're a serious gamer who's been an industry professional for decades - who adored base Dominion, then felt Intrigue drifted away from the spirit of the game as something where the play of the cards was near-automatic, and the challenge was in choosing what cards to get for your deck. They hated the on-play decisions.
I can see where they're coming from. Conditionals and decision points are the main sources of complexity in a game like Dominion. Life is simpler when you can just read down the card and do everything.
All the new cards in Second Edition Base have conditions or decisions, whereas Spy was the only decision-heavy card to be removed.
To be clear: I do like the new cards. They just don't feel right for new players, or for Base.