We're are always getting into this discussion about party is very strong etc... I'm questioning rules them selfs they brake on certain point and I don't agree that we should stop playing because of that. They should address such situation with auto revelation and how to handle that. Now I'm left to house rule this unfinished rule. I want more discussion on that part. Would be great if Francesco coul comment on this. What was the idea especially that this Eye awareness rules should be applied not at the begining, as written, but little bit later when players grow.
I think the big issue may be that you converted - or just started using - powerful 1E characters to 2E. If they had been playing in 2E, perhaps they would have already been ready to retire, or have retired. Or had too much Shadow and become NPCs or dead. There is a complicated web of soft limits on player power, and it's clear to me that 1E had higher limits than 2E.
For example, they might not have taken up famous weapons and armour - Aragorn didn't reforge Narsil and use it on all his adventures. If you'd been playing from the beginning with these rules, everything would have turned out differently. PCs might have gotten into the habit of usually leaving their famous weapons at home, for fear of attention. And that repeated Eye of Sauron attention that they would have been getting when their default Eye rating was 12-16, rather than the 17 now, would have created serious issues for them.
You have already converted characters from 1e to 2e - I think you have to accept that that won't work with the new rules, and you either have to houserule things or change how you've converted them.
I don't think your issue is a criticism of the new rules. It's just an artifact of converting a campaign without re-evaluating, well, everything. I think complaining about it is unfair. To be honest I'm sort of glad you can't just auto-convert characters and a campaign to the new rules without serious revision. What would be the point of a second edition that worked the same as the first?