[mattkevan]

I've used macOS since the early betas and could never find what I wanted in the big dumb grid. Had to use search every time.

IMO the sidebar is more usable as I can just scan down to find the right option, or just use the search as before.

[avidphantasm]

I don't dispute your experience. However, for me the old grid provided a two-dimensional spatial hierarchy (if that's a thing) that made it easy for me to quickly drill down to what I wanted. The new list version has a one-dimensional flattened hierarchy with many more categories to consider at the top level. With so many choices my brain shuts down and I just resort to search.