Dylan, your comments are based on your own, personal, biased, limited, non-scientific experience with one copy on of one lens and one copy of the other.
Now, nobody denies that it is enough for you - or even better, that this is the most important review to you.
That said, all the main in-depth reviews agree on the value of this lens and on its superiority to Canon Mk1. It goes by itself that if someone was happy with the Mk1, he will be only happier with more sharpness and IS at a very good price.
Is it better than Canon Mk2? Optically and mechanically quite likely not, but it has IS, and many people like this feature a lot. Also, it costs a half, and even more people like this feature.
So please stop this pointless crusade and try to understand that better can mean a lot of things, and ultimately it means "it suits my needs better".