Mountain Lion - shortcomings evident on dual core Macs?

Question

Apple will probably scratch this post, but I am really angry about my experience with Mountain Lion, and there are enough posters here to convince me that I am not alone.
I have a 2 year-old 15" MBP, core i7, 2.6 ghz, 8 g ram. I was running Snow Leopard and everything was sweet. I foolishly installed OSX 10.8 (now on .2) to get my computer into iCloud and it has been nothing but irritation and grief ever since. Beach balls, kernel panics (reducing in frequency now but in the first few weeks, 2 or 3 a day) hangings, slow startups, more beach balls, delays requiring restarts . . .
My question is: why did Apple tout this OS as appropriate for older Macs like mine, when clearly it is optimised for quad cores, and (just look at the number of complaints like mine) just causes problems for people like me?

Answer 1

Hardware Information:
    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro6,2
    1 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 2 cores
    8 GB RAM
Startup Items:
    GT Network Tuning - Path: /Library/StartupItems/GT Network Tuning
    HP USB EWS Gateway - Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP USB EWS Gateway
System Software:
    OS X 10.8.2 (12C54) - Uptime: 0 days 15:37
Disk Information:
    ST9500420ASG disk0 : (500.11 GB)
        disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
        Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 499.25 GB (225.07 GB free)
        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
    MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898 
USB Information:
    Plantronics Plantronics C620-M
    Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
    Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub
        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
    Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
    Apple Inc. Display Audio
    Apple Inc. Display iSight
    Apple Inc. Apple LED Cinema Display
    Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
    Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
FireWire Information:
Kernel Extensions:
    com.zeobit.kext.Firewall    Version: 2.3.1
    com.parallels.filesystems.prlufs    Version: 2010.12.28
Problem System Launch Daemons:
           [failed]    com.apple.xprotectupdater.plist
Problem System Launch Agents:
           [failed]    com.apple.accountsd.plist
           [failed]    com.apple.afpstat.plist
           [failed]    com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist
           [failed]    com.apple.lookupd.plist
           [failed]    com.apple.mrt.uiagent.plist
           [failed]    com.apple.printtool.agent.plist
           [failed]    com.apple.tccd.plist
Launch Daemons:
           [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist
           [loaded]    com.google.keystone.daemon.plist
Launch Agents:
           [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist
           [loaded]    com.sierrawireless.SwitchTool.plist
User Launch Agents:
           [loaded]    com.adobe.ARM.925793fb327152fd34795896fa1fb9ffa268b2a852256fe56609efa3.plist
User Login Items:
    iTunesHelper
    System Events
    SuperDrive Update 2.1
    AirPort Base Station Agent
    TheTube Helper
    MediaCentral Launcher
    EyeTV Helper
    LOGINserver
    InstUtilLaunch
3rd Party Preference Panes:
    Flash Player
    Flip4Mac WMV
    MacFUSE
Internet Plug-ins:
    AdobePDFViewer.plugin
    Flash Player.plugin
    FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin
    Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin
    Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin
    googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin
    iPhotoPhotocast.plugin
    JavaAppletPlugin.plugin
    npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin
    OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin.plugin
    QuickTime Plugin.plugin
    RealPlayer Plugin.plugin
    Scorch.plugin
    Silverlight.plugin
User Internet Plug-ins:
    fbplugin_1_0_3.plugin
Bad Fonts:
    None
Top Processes:
    31.5  %    prl_vm_app
    2.4   %    WindowServer
    1.2   %    mds
    1.1   %    EtreCheck
    1.1   %    mtmd
    1.0   %    NetAuthSysAgent
    0.4   %    hidd
    0.3   %    mdworker
    0.3   %    ocspd
    0.2   %    mtmfs