There was only mention of a facelift, which can be good or bad. And lots of facelifts nowadays are quite bad, so I understand the concern.

The main reason I've used claws for the last 12 years is because it looks elegant, clear, clean, simple, and most important: consistent.

It doesn't need a facelift or an overhaul! In fact, as soon as that happens I (and I suspect, majority of users) will leave it forever.

I haven’t seen any modern UI for desktop apps which wasn’t bad in the sense the parent meant: too little affordances, not following long-established OS conventions, not using the native controls and look&feel, not being keyboard-navigable, etc.

so, he is suggesting not to change anything about claws? :-)

It’s almost impossible to make good UI without dumbing things way down. Either that or I’m lacking imagination.