I can't help but wonder, though, what would happen if they were to take that land in Brooklyn, divide it up and sell it to many different people, so you get the same amount of housing, but not built in one huge ugly city-excluding glob by the developer. I think to some extent the objections are not to the amount of housing but to the fact that it's all built as a single huge project by a single developer, as a self contained unit with no regard for the city around it.
I don't know enough about the local issues, but I agree the 'superblock' scale of the thing is part of what is so offputting (but also increases the achievable density).

If I look at other places (the Barbican complex here in London, the original WTC site) then the 'super block' has not been a successful concept.