I picked it up, and I had most of the same concerns as you did, but decided to take a leap of faith and throw in some support to GPG in light of Demigod and all.
I was actually pleasantly surprised. I mean, I didn't think it'd be bad, just not as fun as it turned out to be. It's true, I miss finding "gear", but you still have customization options and there's still a good bit of replayability. Even though you only loot scraps, you still can't upgrade everything, given how much there is to upgrade (armor, each gun, HR-V, plus making grenades/mines/medkits/etc). Gun choices aside (which you pick up at pre-determined places), there are at least 4 chances for replayability in the game (skill choices of cybernetics vs humanity, and a storyline choice I won't spoil). The skill system is also done in such a way that you obviously can't max out everything, and can lean either towards more direct combat abilities, or engineering to throw down sentries, create drones, etc.
It isn't as long as some other RPGs, definitely, but despite its more simple nature it's freakishly fun to play when the action gets going. I don't know about the 10 hours (mine seemed longer, but I'm always the explorer), but there's something to be said about fast paced action without needing to go back to town to sell stuff every few minutes. MP doesn't have a very large following yet, but I got in a game last night (4 players max) where you basically run through 15 missions on another colony ship - and supposedly those get tougher as you do them. You start with everything maxed (still have to get scraps for upgrades, and this character progress saves between sessions), and since it's 4 player (and has different difficulties, apparently), the action is obviously more fun. More bad guys, tougher bad guys, the works
Plus, GPG gets huge bonus points for easter eggs. "I found the frag rifle. I'm gonna use it to gouge evil from its shell!"
