Excuse me? Health and putting roads on every single resource (hell every single tile) is indeed archaic (extraneous) B.S. that failed to add any value gameplay-wise.
Why should every city have it's own happiness/health? To me, anyway, it's weird. You're supposed to be the overlord of an entire nation - not one city. Would, say Congress, care if the people of Tampa, FL needed a new stadium because the people were unhappy there? No, and besides Tampa residents could theoretically travel to Miami to watch games at their big stadium and be happy there. Indeed, does every city need a state-of-the-art top-notch stadium to be happy? According to Civ4's logic - YES!
It's not as if a concept like "health" doesn't exist in Civ5 - it's just embedded now in happiness. Doesn't health and happiness go hand-in-hand? Besides, health, as it was handled in Civ4, doesn't really jive with real-life. In Civ4, poor health hampered a city's population growth - but does the lack of a healthy lifestyle stop population growth in the slums of Mumbai? If health were to be properly implemented it should have an effect on the population growth of the entire nation like Europe after the Industrial Revolution. Again, an argument for Civ5's approach.
In Civ3 and Civ4 it felt as if you were only controlling a collection of cities. There was more personality to be found in individual cities than in your nation. I enjoy the more abstract and streamlined approach to history and nation management Civ5 offers. One, it makes more sense. Two, stuff like health was annoying and, really, not all that meaningful in Civ4. I mean, what is being lost, apart from the novelty of having it there, with "health" missing from the game? Indeed, you could ask this very same question about all the other mechanics Civ4 had like espionage, religion and the budgeting tool. In addition, these were all mechanics which the A.I. couldn't handle yet which the player could easily abuse.
Everything that makes Civ great is in Civ5 and improved on stuff that actually matters - like getting rid of annoying, unrealistic unit spam and stacking.
) but I generally find it quite enjoyable thus far. As many pointed out already, I especially like the more realistic presentation style. The new combat mechanics and hex-grid are also welcome changes. But I do think there are some real annoyances too that need improvement.
. But I have a horrid habit of restarting games, even in games like Oblivion and Morrowind.. 
