First thing to remember is people that have problems tend to complain (about any product) whereas those that don't generally don't bother with reviews.
The "spam" problem is easy enough to correct. You just edit the preferences to "hide all offers" and they are gone. Intuit has always had these "helpful messages"..........
One issue I HAVE heard about is the "New feature" pop up for the "add multiple items list". It has been resolved by either turning off the windows user control or re-installing QuickBooks. (PITA).
I have seen reports of the PDF issue, I haven't had a problem myself but others have. I am sure there will be a fix soon.
The people complaining about speed most likely have either a very large data file with low system resources or have other resource hungry applications running. Once a file gets to be over 500mb it starts to slow down. Just hit F2 and you can check the file size.
Data compatibility issues can be a problem for people upgrading from any version from 2005 back. They used a different database structure back then and the fix is to upgrade to any year from (2006-2008), and then upgrade to the current year.
What I like about 2012- It has a great "file condense" feature that replaced to previous method of shrinking files. You can have it create monthly journal entries for previous periods and it does wonders for large files. I also like the "lead center" and inventory center.
Would I upgrade? I wouldn't hesitate to upgrade, Amazon has it on sale for 135 dollars and of course if it doesn't work out you can return it to either Amazon or Intuit for 60 days after purchase. I am running Enterprise 2012 for my own business and have a copy of 2012 premier and haven't had any issues.
I think the key is what your current version is and if it's working for you. I have seen people still running versions from the 90's without any trouble.