Or maybe there was enough new stuff for it to be more than just a 0.0.1 upgrade (hint: there was; you're being ridiculous).
The problem with 4.2 wasn't that it had bad ideas and a bold clock face, but it was that it was unstable. My Nexus 7 got a huge performance hit and suffered lag, reboots and freezes regularly. The Nexus 4 handled it better, but still had a few hitches here and there. 4.2.2 fixed most of that though.