I’ll second @kai’s assessment. The core of OH 2 is rock solid and it has backwards compatibility so you can use the 1.x bindings. And you do not have to use PaperUI or Habmin if you don’t want to. Everything can be done through text files (with the exception of zwave Things which is mainly lacking full documentation but I believe they are working on a way to autogenerate that). And if you stick to 1.x bindings everything can be configured in text files.
If you follow the Migration tutorial through section 5 that is pretty much were you will be, running the 1.x bindings on the OH 2 core. You can then migrate (or not) to the 2.0 bindings or the other new stuff at your leisure.
Personally (and this is my own opinion probably shared by few) I think having PaperUI be the default first thing presented after installing OH is causing as many if not more problems than it is solving. Many people get the impression that PaperUI is the only or the preferred way to do everything and it is not yet ready for that. Of course this is just a feeling. I don’t have any insight into how many people are successfully using PaperUI without complaint. I only see those who have had trouble and posted here.