>> but still seem to be a summation of current design trends rather than any sort of innovative new way to display the information

>> I also agree that it looks a lot nicer because of the high-end stock photos.

Exactly. This looks like a first-year design school project for these, and so many other reasons.

This design would fall apart without visually simple photography that tailor fits to the grid. The right way to approach a redesign would be to collect an aggregate of typical facebook photos, and use them as examples.