Like many of the "improvements" in MW, they took something that needed fixing and replaced it with something else that also needed fixing. Going from NO magic regen to a "human flamethrower" who can spam "flare" spells all day almost without a break was an over-reaction to the complaints about the lack of Magicka regeneration. I liked MW's noticably deeper magicka pool (or was it the same pool, but less expensive spells?), but hated the fact that you constantly either had to find a bed or spam potions to replenish it. MW's Enchantments worked excellently in that regard: slow enough regen that you had to use them conservatively and intelligently, but fast enough that you rarely had to speed the process by manually refilling with soulgems. Oddly, OB took away the regen of enchanted items, and a lot of people then complained about how they hated "charges". The two problems were just swapped between the two games. A middle ground would have made a lot more sense.

I want to see a regen rate that requires INTELLIGENT play as a Mage, but doesn't cripple their potential. If I want to run around and mindlessly destroy stuff, I'll play a barbarian Fighter.