That's an odd thing to say as without the cutting edge CGI and Cameron, Avatar wouldn't be Avatar. Would apple pie be as tasty if it didn't have apples and wasn't pie?
"Just because something is popular, doesn't mean it's good" is a worthless statement as it doesn't tell us anything about the product in question
Product ?. Maybe it is a good product, what do I care. Episode One was a probably a 'good product', it was also a horribly dull movie. If we are talking about a work of art I can't think of a more ever present truism than that popular does not equate with good.
If stripped of the polish, which is admittedly very impressive, the rest is just so incredibly banal as to be an almost complete waste of time. The goal was to create a blockbuster, to entertain with the environment of Pandora, that they did, and those kinds of moves are rarely any good. Once in a while you get lucky and find both quality and a giant budget. Doesn't happen often though.