It comes down to user experience. How many people managing networks who knew their ip addresses by heart and typed it regularly for all kind of tasks were put

It comes down to user experience. How many people managing networks who knew their ip addresses by heart and typed it regularly for all kind of tasks were put off by the new format and decided, consciously or not, to wait until "I really have to deal with it"? Some people get really angry when you point that out ;) Good thing for IPv6 it didn't really have any competitor (except IPv4).