I completely understand what you are saying, and they have already solved your problem. You can still easily grab the V2 theme to lay on top of V3 to generate all those pre-done styles. The beauty is that it's no longer forced in V3 for people that do want to build up, like it was in V2. It's a win-win! ;)
It was kind of them to make the extra effort though, for those of us who are happier with the older look and feel. Just a bit more like actual buttons, and it'd be perfect.
The gradients are more subtle in that theme. You could always stick with v2 if that works for you and your users. It's a starter template so it's not something that you must upgrade (unless you need support but I'm sure v2 is pretty solid by now).
As tsurantino said in another comment, see here: http://getbootstrap.com/examples/theme/