I don't really see it among family and friends. My parents who are not very technical mostly went shrug, it looks a bit different and went on with their lives. The only family member who said anything about it was our daughter, who likes it a lot.

Agree that Photos is much-improved.

Personally I am not really a fan of liquid glass. On the Mac, I don't notice it much. On the iPhone I find it more noticeable, the primary thing I'm annoyed by is the overlay with video play controls (macOS too). I would rather have seen them invest time into fixing existing issues than a redesign (e.g. why can I not configure Headphone Accommodations on the Mac for AirPods Max, but I can on the iPhone).