It's funny because your main complaint was Sam Raimi's as well.
Apparently the producers were forcing him to put extra material into the movie that Raimi felt 'over did it'. Like you mentioned, there seemed to be too many plot lines going on at once, and from what I've been reading, that's what Raimi's opinion is as well. He wanted to 'keep it simple' but evidently the studio execs felt that 'more is better' was the way to go.
Personally, I haven't seen it yet but that's only because the local theaters that are playing it will most definitely be packed with little screaming kiddies for the next few days, so I'll most likely wait a week or so.
However next weekend
28 Weeks Later is opening, so Spidey might have to wait..
