It's not subjective atmosphere. There's no question this facility has been pretty much the 3rd worst place to place baseball in the last 20 years behind Oakland and Tampa. It was just unfortunate that the timing was just a bit off in terms of the concept and when it opened. It was about 4 years to early. Over time they have made great improvements to help the place, such as making the infield dirt... flight deck...etc. The issue has never been a subjective atmosphere, it's the same issue they face today. It's atmosphere vs cost and practicality. For a long time, despite the fact it was outdated (which happened as soon Camden yards opened in 1992) the stadium was just still way to new to even think about a new one. It's obvious that despite the new renovations, the upper brass still feels they have a stadium issue or Mark Shapiro wouldn't be on record saying this is basically a band-aid solution. Texas has already had two new stadiums since the skydome opened to make the argument our stadium is still to new at this point doesn't hold merit anymore.
At this point it's about the following things in no particular order:
1) Cost vs generating revenue (not just the actual ticket sales, but will it do things like attract free agents and generate money indirectly)
2)Location
3)Can it be done without disrupting where the team plays during a new build or a complete and more significant change to the current stadium.
The place was in desperate need to be brought up modern day standards, hence they had to do something to buy time while they figure this out.
We'll see if the new reno's are good enough, or they'll have continue work through the stadium issue.