We live out of state, so I can't speak to what was going on in the local KI community. But I remember when we heard about it, we were pretty excited. It was a "sequel" to the park's biggest, baddest and most famous roller coaster. I was still in my teens, so I was all about wanting to try the biggest and most extreme thing. And it fit in with the Paramount mindset of making every ride an event. I waited for hours to ride it the year it opened and I remember looking at the giant structure hulking over the Action Zone midway thinking "that seems like a lot."
The actual experience was mixed. It definitely had thrills. It was big and fast, and it was the speed and height more than the loop that made it so memorable (although the loop was fun). But it might also be the only roller coaster I've ridden where I thought the designers were trying to kill me (and I've ridden Mean Streak!). I had bruises on my arms, and the Rose Bowl section was excruciating. I regularly left the ride with a splitting headache; one year, it ruined my entire afternoon at the park. I started buying Tylenol before we rode it.
By the time they finally closed it down and took out the loop, I was hitting my late 20s and had stopped going to the park for a few years. It wasn't until I hit 30 and started going with my now-wife that I saw it in SBNO mode, which might have been the saddest sight of all (I was so glad they took Vortex down quickly so we didn't have to endure that). I miss it from a sheerly nostalgic perspective, in the sense that I can pull up video and tell my son "yeah, I rode that." But honestly, once you got past the novelty the ride was too painful to be fun. I don't miss it, but I do appreciate the big swing they took in building it.