What if it were just a button, over where the chat rooms button is? I don't think people would feel it's being forced upon them if it's not screaming at them visually.
Also, keep in mind that GD is still a small portion of the playerbase; they might feel we're being force-fed boards, but that's not actually what's happening; it's that GD can't be integrated like that because of technical limitations. Why hold off on developing cool features because a small (albeit loud) portion of the playerbase doesn't want change?
I think the majority of summoners will see it for what it is - a cool feature to check out. It'll also give Boards a lot of visibility, which is honestly what we need the most of right now. I can't speak for other people, but until more changes have been made, I'm kind of out of feedback for the moment. However, I know other people will have opinions that I'd love to talk about.