I like the new update and I think author needs to let her cynicism aside and focus on the fact that a product revitalization is almost always due.
However there are examples of the night mode driving directions having unintuitive colours: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/17yv4qp/...
In this example the bright blue route (matching the directional arrow) is actually the optional path, the true path is the softer blue colour (as signalled by the turning direction at the top of the screen.)
Also I get the feeling that smaller streets disappeared, forcing me to enable the cycling mode.
But I did share the opinion of author and whined about it like a good HNer when I've only seen the blog post and before I actually tried it.