I agree with you completely @simplymike. The only terrible thing about making these posts is listening and responding to the people that just don't care. Thank you for caring. It definitely makes me continue to move forward.
And to your last point, there are 2 main types of people here: 1) the ones that see it and are very very concerned (just read the comments and see the upvotes to see some of the people in this category) and 2) the ones that either don't care about the new user experience or not paying attention.
I think it is heading for a search for a solution. Whether they want to admit it at the top or not, you can tell by reading the responses here they are clearly worried about how this looks. I have never had some of these people comment before, and they aren't here because they like my post. ;)