FWIW, I've loved every version of Elite since the 80's original, and I was a KS backer. I no longer feel that sense of loyalty, and I feel that to buy Horizons would be to throw good money after bad.
Same here. I'd kept an eye out for any hint of Elite 4 coming out since I played FFE, and jumped on the kickstarter when it launched.
Frontier's attitude to original KS backers is that unless you paid a lot of money upfront for a lifetime pass, then your contribution basically amounts to nothing, and you can be quiet and be thankful for what you've got.
Really though, I should have remembered my experience with FFE: the first game I ever had to get a patch for because it was so broken on release.
Back then I had to go back to the games shop, where they had a stack of FFE patch disks (3.5" floppies) on the counter, which they were giving out.
Now, I'm playing the game I've got, hoping for it to be improved, and if Horizons drops to £10 at Christmas then I'll probably end up buying it.
Unless season 3 includes everything before it, in which case I can wait another year.
It's not like I'm short on other games to play, and more space games are coming soon...