Good response DaveBLondon.
Along with Dave's I would like to make a couple points here and hopefully it will help with the "Expectation Shock" and "Temperature Shock" (I hate the whole [something]gate naming convention).
I think a little perspecive and a couple things in physics, standards, and history is needed. I have a great deal of experience in this area and would like to help. No I don't work for Apple.
Perspective
First consider how long it takes your laptop to charge. I have a 3.5 year old MacBook Pro that has a 65W power adapter. It will take good 4-5 hours for a full charge and it lasts on battery about an hour now but did last almost 2 when it was newer. iPads are approaching laptops in capability and the power requirement must increase to do this. This is a huge balancing act the engineers must contend with.
Remember the phones and laptops get hot also when in use. Some get very warm.
Physics
Everything (and I do mean Everything) in engineering is a trade-off. You don't get anything for free. If you increase the performace by 50% you can rest assured that the power requirement will increate 75% and heat will increase 30% or more. Performance always means more power and heat. A Ferrari's engine uses far more fuel and has a far more robust cooling system to do the same job of transferring you from point A to point B and a micro-car (pick any of the little guys), but people happily tolerate this because of the car's performance.
Unlike the competitors, iPads are made from Aluminum. Some may not know this but is very very smart. Aluminum is one of the best heat conductors on earth and it is very light and strong (although is dents somewhat easily). These devices do not have cooling systems in the classic way (with laptops heatsinks and cooling fans are used). So the only way these devices cool is through the chasis. This is where the aluminum comes in. It very efficiently takes the heat away from the components to the air. The temperature of the chasis has a couple factors the amount of aluminum surface exposed to the air, the amount of heat generated, and the amount of air movement. The more surface area and/or air flow the more heat can be dissipated.
Aluminum will always feel warmer than plastic. This is because plastic is a heat insulator and aluminum is a heat conductor. This actually means that plastic is a bad material to use for devices that don't have cooling fans because it holds the heat against the components. In electronics Heat = Short Life. By using aluminum Apple keeps their components cooler adding to the life of the device. The unfortunate side affect of this is that people think the device is overheating. But try this experiment. After running your iPad hard and heating it up. Turn it off and see how fast it gets back to room temperature. It'll surprise you.
Finally big batteries just take longer to charge. I remember a competitors phone that came out with 4G technology that only lasted 8 hours on standby very much less if used. People were always looking for their next "power hit". Their battery was too small for the performance it needed. Which is better: a longer charge time to get a long run or less charge time and shorter runs. Personally I prefer the first choice. Yes my new iPad takes longer to charge. I haven't seen it take 8 hours as some experience but it does take longer than my iPad 1.
Standards
The "charger" like so many people like to call it is actually a USB adapter. This is, of course, a little bit of a throwback to when all devices (tablets and phones) were looked upon as parasitic to another computer. In the beginning (if memory serves) USB was only data. But either early on or in the beginning (if memory doesn't serve) it was able to supply 5W of power. That's not much to work with and the engineers needed to design devices to charge on this in a reasonable time. Later USB was able to supply 10W of power and devices were able to charge more quickly. iPads from the beginning have been designed to charge at the 10W level so that they could still be able to be charged from the USB.
It is possible that devices like the iPad have reached the limit of USB charging and from now on may need a power adapter and not a USB adapter.
Unlike the competitors Apple uses smart charging so the charge rates change depending on the current charge of the batteries. Therefore depending on their charging algorthm the rate of charge will change. This adds a tremendous amount of life to the batteries.
I have experienced a problem with my iPad not charging yesterday. I noticed it was plugged in but the charge continued to drop. When I touched the USB adapter it was cold. It was clearly not charging when plugged in. So I have to wonder if there is a thermal switch in the USB Adapter and it "kicked out" since it gets fairly warm when charging. There is also the possibility that the smart charging system has a glitch. Which brings me to History.
History
I have been using Apple products for a good while now. One thing that Apple has been good about is making hardware take directions from software. That being said the smart charging system is most likely NOT a piece of hardware like other systems but is controlled by the computer. So if needed Apple can modify the way the iPad charges.
Secondly the company, while notoriously quiet about their new stuff, is also very good about putting things to right. Everyone complained about the antenna on the iPhone 4. But no one complains about it today. Why is that? People complained about the short battery life in the iPhone 4S. Now they don't. Why is that? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, but some of the perceived problems are overblown, some are fixed, and some just come with the territory.
Remember the device is only 5 days old and Apple can do a lot with software updates. In fact they can do far more than any of the competitors and they have a great reputation. Give them a chance to solve this and remember problem solving takes time. If they don't or can't then the gripe is legitimate and Apple is culpable. As always if you just can't bear to wait you can return it.
Personally I am a disappointed at the charging issue, not at the warmth issue. But I will wait and see for they have made my iPhone 4S last much longer on a charge with this last update and I'm sure they'll figure out this as well.
