I don't see what the fuss is about hamburgers vs dots. As long as it works that's all that matters to me.
Excluding the folks complaining because it's fun to complain or because they aren't good with any kind of change, most of the argument has been around reachability, menu content, and loss of uniqueness. A few folks who are more into user experience issues have also raised the issues of function discoverability, general reachability, and changes in navigational models.
The reachability issue can be addressed in a bunch of ways, including edge swiping, but another reachability issue is raised by shrinking the headers so that actionable content begins higher on the page. (Fun test: look at how quickly you can one-handedly access the jump lists of People than the all programs list -- this is because the People app, even with smaller headers, pushes the content down by having your picture at the top while the apps list starts all the way at the top.)
There isn't yet consensus in the developer community about what should and shouldn't go in a hamburger menu panel. (Is it lesser used items, like those that in WP8 apps appear at the bottom of the app menu? Is it settings? Is it main app nav like in the Facebook app?) Even Microsoft hasn't been consistent in how its apps use the side panel so far. Of course, there are still several months to sort this out and produce guidance documentation.
The full-page side wiping to change pano/pivot tabs is nice because it lets users swipe from anywhere. On the down side, it also prevents apps and lots of built-in controls from using sideways motions. A way around this might be to make the app bar at the bottom swipe aware so that it passes side swipes up to the visible pano/pivot/tab control. (I don't actually think that this is practical and it's certainly not discoverable.)
The biggest change as I see it is in how hamburger menus as navigational controls will change the app experience. Right now, app flow is fairly straightforward in that users move deeper into an app by tapping items on a list and then back out with the Back key. If the hamburger panel includes main navigation, it would be easy to jump from function to function, creating loops of pages. This hasn't been the mobile model in the past, as least not for WP.
One final thought, the introduction of hamburgers doesn't have to mean that every app needs one. Maybe the guidance will be that hamburgers are for certain kinds of apps while others stick with a simpler nav model. We'll see.