Planetary landings/atmospheric flight will be great - something I've looked forward to for a while. I just hope FD remembers that there has to be stuff to do once you get to the surface... even if there's not to begin with, I just hope they don't forget to fill in the blanks later.
I'm hoping what we have right now is basically a big Mad Libs book - they're building the skeleton before putting all the meat on. I remain optimistic.
I look at it like this: Planetary landings? GREAT! Give explorers who want to land and check out planets the ability to do more detailed scanning and the like. I think that would be awesome.
I can also see it like this: Planetary landings? BOOOO! There is nothing for me to do down there!
I think some explorers will see it as a great opportunity to have more fun and more things to do other than just run around, scan a system, rinse and repeat. If you find a planet that is interesting, like say an earth like, then that would be pretty cool to land on. I mostly see the second thought for players that pretty much do everything else and stay within the bubble of known space. I think it will be a niche thing to begin with until FD, like you mentioned, put in the meat for planet side stuff.