I think you're looking at the re-design from a user-experience perspective, and this is probably wrong. Think of Reddit as a for-profit company, and then consider what that company might want out of a re-design. They'll talk in public up one side and down the other about making it a friendlier place and easier to use, but ... consider some alternative motives.

What might those be? I suspect some VERY important goals of the re-design are:

INCREASE USER ENGAGEMENT - get users to stay longer, and if they leave, make it less permanent ... tactically:

• all external links open in a new tab now

• infinite-scroll

• simplify subreddit / multireddit management

INCREASE AD VIEWS & AD CLICKS - with users more engaged, monetize their attention:

• make subreddit designs far more uniform, with fewer CSS tricks to really change the layout / experience

• make it difficult / inconsistent (!) to try to do some impressive CSS design, to discourage subreddit managers from taking layout changes beyond a certain threshold

• make the "post" ads just a little less obvious and a little more enticing

• make the "post" ads far more common than before

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I could be wrong on all these. I suspect I'm right on several.