Personally, I think a lot of the problems with WH40k all stem from the scope of the game having grown too large for the 6' x 4' tables we all play on. Alpha Strikes, First Turn Assaults, Death Stars, and so forth... The forces on the table contain so many troops and war machines; the two sides are deployed in such close proximity; and there's a ton of maneuver-enhancing options available to everyone... It's just nuts.
Back in Second Edition, when the game shifted focus from Rogue Trader's story-driven skirmish system (with a Game Master and everything!), into a proper wargame, it was meant to focus on the platoon level. The default game-size was 1500 Points and a lowly Imperial Guardsman cost 10 Points and a basic boltgun carrying Tactical Marine cost 33 Points. Once you factored in equipment costs, a supporting tank or transport, and maybe something "exotic" like a Dreadnought you'd rarely see more than thirty or so Space Marine infantry on the table. Maybe fifty to sixty Imperial Guard or Space Ork infantry because they were the "horde" armies.
Here we are in Eighth Edition, we've grown waaay past the platoon level. It's common for Space Marine players to have a demi-company on the field, with ample supporting elements, up to and including squadrons of aircraft. Hell, if your careful, you can easily field a full Battle Company of Space Marines. Imperial Guard players are routinely putting entire battalions on the table... and god help those crazy "Green Tide" loving Ork players who need snow shovels to push their infantry mobs across the table. Warhammer 40,000 has become Epic 40,000 in terms of scope, model types, and troop quantities. But a 6' x 4' table is a lot more relative real estate for a 6 mm tall model to fight across than it is for a 32 mm.
I think the Warhammer 40,000 community has got to either move to larger tables (6' x 6'?) or move to smaller point games (1500?).