Agreed. The Snowden leaks to date have exposed programs whose outline we* guessed at years ago -- but details matter and written confirmation matters. The Patriot Act 215 order against Verizon is arguably illegal and unconstitutional; it exceeds the statutory authority and requires prospective data be divulged instead of merely retrospective. The FAA 702 orders, well, we'll see. Remember even the provider liability immunization is not unlimited.

But these are legal arguments. So far there has been no dramatic evidence that the NSA's sweeping surveillance powers have been abused in the way the IRS abused its authority -- examples would be snooping on politicians, blackmail, listening to sex chats, etc. We've learned more about abuses of this sort (politicians and sex chats, not blackmail) from scattered reports in the NYT half a decade ago then we have from Snowden so far.

* We == people who have been following these topics.