It definitely feels like a bit push for 'lock in' (not that gmail really needs that...).
If I am wrong, someone please tell me how to do so from a list view.
[A horrible mistake if it's true... Labels are a significant advantage of gmail over many other email clients.]
Sometimes I like to peruse the ones that I've not yet acknowledge receipt of and either j/k + x to select the ones I want to dismiss outright, which I can still do in Inbox, and then shift-i/click mark as read to mark em my equivalent of 'done'...
The actions presented in Inbox will leave the 'unread' business to ever grow and clutter any IMAP connected application and searches like is:unread.
Edit: Maybe the more troubling aspect of the removal of the 'unread' handling is that these emails will certainly go unseen/missed which is bad.