I don't know, the UI is good. I like the "Ice Cream Sandwich" look, honestly. I wonder if the time of an open-source project is best served by re-doing the UI just to keep up with trends.
I think it's rarely worth the effort, but eventually they're forced into it. I really hate the current mobile software ecosystem. Hope we get something like the xfce of mobile environments at some point where things don't really change for decades.
It really is too bad that the Nokia N800/810/900 series of devices were too little too late, because having what is basically an ubuntu desktop on a phone-screen sized tablet was awesome. Maemo was the original "OS" and was replaced by "Mer" and if i am not mistaken, at least as of 2019 both projects still exist.
If i ever pick up a librephone, pinephone, or something that can be switched to another OS, i'd like to try it again, even though i don't like using phones in landscape mode anymore. Maemo raised the bar so high on landscape orientation user interfaces that everything else is a joke.
This is a very benign and positive UI change tbf. I say that as someone who heavily uses this app since many years and who is _very_ conservative w.r.t. software. I've switched to the beta and am really happy with it. Not just changed, really improved.