And now I've played D&D...
And it's about as dull as 3E.   That is to say, any sort of storytelling interest has to be added to it; playing them both for combat is equally dull.  There are a few things gone which make it even easier to forgt about storytelling, but it wasn't that hard to forget in the first place. 

I think the biggest change is the division into Tanks and Blasters, sorry, Defenders and Strikers.  I was playing a fighter and had to get used to the fact that the rogue could do heaps more damage than me, and that my role was to just stand there and take hits.  Normally when I play a fighter I get to do both, while everyone else is bored.  Much like MMORPGS, tanking is kind of dull, and boy do you need taunts.  The GM made sure his creatures attacked the Striker whenever they could, because that's tactically the best idea.  No more attacking whoever is the most dramatic...but as mentioned, there ARE compensations for this, in that it does what a lot of people were already doing with D&D (playing it tactically) a lot better and smoother.  And that allows for D&D combats to be a lot more interesting as games - kobolds sticking us to the floor with gluepots so we could get squished by rolling rocks made for interesting gaming, and for once doing something INTERESTING was tactically sound, which it so rarely was before.

Much like MMORPGs, it's about the grind.  The story comes not from the game, but entirely from you.  But the grind is well balanced and multi-faceted.