It was also pretty easy to find and read your email, which it currently is not.
I wish there was a better balance between both UIs. The "better looking" one wastes too much resources (CPU, memory, screen space).
It's not about resource cost for me, I use high end hardware and fast connections (coupled with ad and script blockers, both in-browser and at network level, which are probably adding to the frustration) and not only does it load and run like complete crap, I literally couldn't find an email I knew was there in my "inbox" last time I opened it.
I only use Gmail/Workspace for family/personal stuff so I just use mobile apps 99% of the time now, but if I had to use it more regularly I'd be quite annoyed.
Not that Office 365 which I use for work is any better in a web browser.
The "basic HTML" version is probably not exactly as any previous version but it's a good approximation. I think it makes much better use of color and space, and the buttons have text labels instead of using an arcane symbol language I have to relearn every time I have the misfortune to use it.
It was more pleasant to look at and provided more useful functionality on the UI.
The modern trend of wasting space and erasing colors is really bad.
The only new feature I like is the "tab" categories (but only on desktop). Though they really botched it because now I'm confused about the difference between categories and labels so I don't use labels anymore. IMO they should have used the existing labels system for that.
