What's Going on with CircleCI's New UI?

This thing has been in progress for a long time and still seems like a regression in every sense of the word; visually and functionally. Recently they have been getting more aggressive with pushing it, though it's clearly not even half-baked, by forcing users into it before they can switch back out.

Visually it just seems very bland and not very space efficient. I believe liking it is subjective, sure, but it really seems like the existing UI had a lot more care, and purpose behind it.

Many people have complained about missing functionality, missing information, and regressions in existing functionality. The new log output virtual scroller for instance has been mentioned multiple times for not being searchable and having select issues; typical virtual scroller issues and perhaps a poor choice for the use case in its current form.

Somebody raised an issue with colors that are not "color-blind safe" being used to convey contextual information. To which the reply was "As we built this UI we’ve put effort along the way into designing for folks who are colorblind and other accessibility needs. Sorry to hear we screwed up here.". And yet.. This is one of the only places the color even matters? A lot of the responses to people's feedback are SUPER PR feeling, almost like the target audience isn't the user so much as management.

Overall the whole process feels like cargo-cult product development. There seems to be little forward-thinking user empathy and a lack of acknowledgement that a lot of the UIs current functionality are going to be "basic needs" at this point for many users. I find it very bizarre and a little concerning for the future. One almost has to assume all this work and effort going into the "New UI" is delaying new features? Certainly if it's so far from parity at this point, it is even further from moving the ball forward?