While i'm highly sympathetic to those who wanted male viera, I do think the inclusion of a more 'beasty' type of race was needed for a large slice of players also. Its a very fine line, but I think overall SE made the right decision. It will be easier to (hopefully) flesh out male viera and female Hrothgar as add-ins than it would be to try to add-in a whole new race from scratch later, so I think this route offers the best promise overall.
Just my thoughts.