Yeah I miss the sidebar too, it annoyed me and our devs when the pinning was broken and then when there were less items in it.

It felt like without the side bar there is wasted screen realestate that could have project related options or navigation in the side bar.

As resolutions and screens get larger I'm a strong believer that as long as you don't over complicate or make the interface too busy, you shouldn't waste ⅔ of a web site with white space.

Regardless, very happy with 9.0 otherwise, another fantastic release from the team and contributors.