Former England captain Michael Vaughan labelled the deck a "shocker", while fellow commentators Stuart Broad and Brett Lee were also critical.
The spectre of another two-day Test in this series loomed large at stumps on Friday - nightwatchman Scott Boland hit a boundary off the last ball of the day to leave Australia 0-4 in their second innings.
After England won the toss, they blasted Australia out for 152 and then were destroyed themselves for 110.
Cricket Australia lost millions of dollars in revenue when the first Test in Perth did not reach day three.
The 20 wickets on day one are a record for a Boxing Day Test, beating the 18 in the 1998 Ashes match.
The all-time Test record is 27, for the 1888 Ashes Test at Lords.
The flurry of wickets meant debate over the pitch completely eclipsed talk earlier on day one about Australia going into the game without a front-line spin bowler.
"This first day wicket is a shocker. It really is," Michael Vaughan said on Fox Sports.
Vaughan's compatriot Broad was similarly non-plussed as England followed Australia's batting collapse with an even worse first-innings performance.
"The pitch is doing too much if I'm perfectly honest," Broad told SEN.
"Test match bowlers don't need this amount of movement to look threatening."
Lee and fellow Fox Sports commentator Alyssa Healy were divided on whether the pitch was offering too much.
"l use the word 'sporty', and I've often said, look it's a batsmen's game, we're here to see batsmen score runs, but l think it's a bit too sporty in my opinion," Lee said.
"I think there's a little bit too much in it."
Healy, whose husband Mitch Starc led the demolition of England's top order, was rapt.
"I personally like it ... it's a hot topic of conversation in our household, it's never how good the bowling is, it's always about how bad the batting is when we talk about the wicket.
"But sometimes the bowling is just too good."
Earlier on Friday, TV commentator and former Test legspinner Kerry O'Keeffe was defiant after Australia had gone with an all-pace attack.
"Fast bowler friendly pitches have been produced for the last season and a half and the bottom line is, Australia wins on them because of their fast bowling cartel," O'Keeffe said on Kayo Sports.
"But spinners are cockroaches, you just can't kill us.
"We're like Ringo Starr in The Beatles, we're the worst singer, but you need us to blend in."
In no small part because of the ample displays of leg-spin genius he produced at the MCG, the Southern Stand was re-named in Warne's honour.
Since Warne took his 700th Test wicket in the 2006 Boxing Day Test, Brad Hogg, Nathan Hauritz and Nathan Lyon have filled the spin bowling role on December 26.
The closest Australia has come to not playing a front-line spinner was when they lost to England by an innings in 2010.
Even then, Steve Smith was picked as a leg-spinning allrounder and yet to transition into one of cricket's top batsmen.
With Lyon sidelined because of his hamstring injury, this is the third time in five Tests that Australia have not featured a full-time spin bowler.
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