A Comic-Con Too Far?

Somehow I made it from July 22-25 without posting anything about San Diego Comic-Con, and given my well-documented proclivities in this area, I'm not at all sure how this happened. But, anyway, trying to play catch-up today, I'll note that it seems that it was as fabulously well-attended as ever, so much so that debate has been underway for a few years now as to whether Comic-Con is a victim of its own success. Here's an interesting quote from an article in Saturday's Washington Post:

"It's become much more akin to a film festival like Sundance or Cannes," says Jace Lacob, a journalist who has covered several Comic-Cons for his Web site, Televisionary, and who contributes to the Daily Beast. "And I think that Sundance analogy is a good one, because that also was a much more grass-roots event that suddenly became a very Hollywood and celebrity event."

It seems to me that your event has arrived when people think it's gone commercial, sold out, and/or jumped the shark. And that there are worse problems to have. But obviously I'm being glib. In all seriousness, have you ever had to deal with sort of double-edged feedback about one of your meetings? Have you ever been accused of growing an event too big and losing sight of your original mission -- and your core attendees?