I wouldn't have played it back then so unfortunately dont have comparisons to fall back on. I think the challenge is any type of map design is always worth a try, but when it is a square map that is on the whole, wide open from most corners, it literally forces you to camp or play extremely slowly to move from flag to flag. It is literally suicide running through the middle as its wide open and you get picked off so quickly, so you resort to Plan B, which is run around the edge to capture flags far away...but 7-8 times out of 10, you find you run for 1-2 minutes to be shot quickly at the other end, which means a long ass run for your next death. Other maps like Border Crossing (starting to come round to this map abit more) have multiple ways to play it. Thats what maps need, just different angles and possibilities.
The worse thing going for Taraq is like @TigerBurge said, is generally how CoD players usually play. They don't play like FG does of which 95% of us PTFO. That map is designed to help those campers that just want kills, whereas others you can flip spawns quickly and force the slow campy players that don't play objectives out of their holes more often.