Having no context (and, to be honest, actually no clue about anything actually being 'better' or 'worse') I am properly humiliated. Apologies-- I suppose I was just shortsighted and only saw it as some slap in the face to backwards compatibility (probably out of a selfish urge for things to "Just Work", or something like that. I'm really bad at wording my intents properly.)
...Having said that, I assume it's not an easy matter to update configs. Do they have to be redone from square one, or...?