Well of course they went to see BATMAN kickass. And be...Batmanish.
But they know The Joker is coming. I mean when that Joker card was shown..before it was even flipped. People went nuts. And this is maryland. That doesn't happen often

It's hard to get a clap out of people.
People want to see what can be the ultimate showdown between the best Batman yet and The Joker.
Not exploring that would be wrong and unfair not just to comic fans but to people who's never really seen it outside of TAS which was still a cartoon.
You don't need to see Joker byhimself or with goons. You can show him with Dent or Gordon or Batman or killing people etc. And still have him be Batman. That's how I'm doing it(uh oh self plug) my script I'm...been working on for 10 months...I got busy okay. I had Joker tormenting Dent and even stabbing Gordon. Only really one scene with him and his guys alone. And in that he kills one of them.
He didn't overtake Batman or hell even Dent for that matter. But he still got enough play to make it a good Batman vs Joker story. Now I'm not expecting it to be done the same way. Cause...I'm not a proffesional

But side lining Joker...there's no excuse you could give to make up for such a thing. And it's very easy to tie in Bruce's psychological torment with Joker's for some great stuff...that doesn't even have Joker mentioned let alone around for.