With the frequency of exterminatus to me it has lost it's sense of any drama in the 40k universe. In pretty much every Black Library book or GW codex there is at least one planet wiped out. The Imperium seems to have an endless supply of planets capable of sustaining life. The geo-form concept has only been mentioned once that I can remember.
In battles it seems that a couple million guardsmen or heretics can just be slaughtered and no one cares?
A continents worth of people, gone and who cares? The heroic leaders of factions refuse to die and kill a couple hundred Orks, Tyranids, or cultists and walk away like nothing happened.
More annoyingly is that we read that "insert name" is the most evil and most corrupted, capable of making planets go caplooie with just a thought. If you are one of the big guys you all have so much power no one has any power. In the HH books I think I have heard someone describe every Primarch as the Emporer's most loyal son.
I remember reading a post about a Khorne Berzerker that stopped to salute his opponent after they had killed several of his squad mates, for the big guys it seems that a couple berzerkers generally isn't even worth flinching at, unless you are a little guy then maybe if you have thirty mates you can take him.
I guess basically my feeling is that when you try and make everything dark and scary nothing is scary.
The rant is over, does anyone else agree?