I hear you, but I think those complaints lean too heavily on the 1982 movie events purportedly setting "the canon", or any canon existing. Problem there is the 1982 movie isn't canon according to either the original novel, The Thing from Another World, or John Carpenter himself, it's just a really good movie including cinematic decisions they thought were right for the movie.

2011 never aimed to be a direct prequel that strictly followed the setup of the 1982 movie, it was another take on a great century-old novella with a great monster informed by other media like '51 and '82, and I would wager the video game. Which is fun.

Carpenter himself treats his movie as a fun movie and apparently couldn't care less about what is or isn't 1982 canon. He's very clear that he created his own movie loosely based on a novella he liked, but not restricting himself at all to the contents of the novella or a set of in-universe rules and norms if they didn't work for his movie.

2011 did the same thing Carpenter did, and has so many great moments

that while I like parts of 1982 better, I recently watched 2011 and got to show it to a friend for the first time because I know there are moments in there that I can only get from that movie. And I loved watching it again, they keep the tension guitar-string tight the entire runtime.

My friend actually watched 1982 first and then 2011, and was on the edge of her seed with 2011, while 1982 she could take or leave.

That doesn't mean 2011 is an objectively better movie. It's another unique movie that speaks differently to different people.