I don't hate CT but I cant possibly play it any more after MGT.
MGT adds loads of stuff that was missing from CT that I didn't realise was missing until I got MGT. Interesting chargen, fast ship combat, nice simple personal combat rules, radiation and suffocation rules, easy to remember and use task system, little plot footnotes - all of these immediately spring to mind.
However I do prefer certain things that CT did - deckplans, concentration on realistic not fantastical weapons, illustrations, star system creation, vector ship combat (despite the fact its unusable in a real game), animals and events, mercenary - all of these were better in CT.