As a competitive player...
You know, the definition of having fun in Smash Bros is subjective; some people prefer items off so as to test their abilities with characters and who's the better smasher without interference; others prefer to have a party and enjoy having the insanity with items. There's nothing wrong with either style.
To be fair though, you WILL have to learn how to play with items. There's characters who can produce items like Peach (Turnips/Beam Sword/Bob-Omb/Mr. Saturn), Link/Toon Link (Bombs), Diddy Kong (Banana Peels), etc. It's important to know what these characters are capable of doing with their items, and you'll have to adapt. However, if you play with the items enough, you can make tricks of your own and throw them off when they're against them. The characters who can produce items generally only know what they're capable of doing with their items, but not when their opponent has control of them.
Also Sakurai himself said that the point of Smash Bros. "isn't to feel remorseful over your loss, but rather, to praise your opponent for putting up a good fight".
Basically just please respect each other's playstyle; items or no items, it's up to YOU to decide your playstyle and in the end, you should be having fun!
And for the record even though I'm competitive and prefer no items, I'm cool with items on as well.
And as for the stages, like I said earlier, I don't mind the simple stages (like Battlefield, Final Destination, etc.), but I tend to be more open-minded as long as the stage isn't more of a hazard than the opponents. So stages that add a little more variety or have gimmicks that aren't completely annoying/game-breaking (such as Delfino Plaza and its water and the moving platform, Pokemon Stadium and its transformations, Green Greens and the apples and the bomb blocks, Halberd with the moving platform and the claws/bombs/lasers, etc.) are also good for me.
I think Skyloft would probably end up being my favorite stage of SSB4; reminds me of Delfino/Halberd of how it travels around the stage. =P