For us, it has little to do with fresh and more to do with functionality and the way the platform has long ignored anything non-Gutenberg. I do applaud your pursuits to push WordPress, and will keep hoping that it can understand that not everything fits into a blog/woo site template. I think we also need controls for what is shown/hidden in interfaces.
I'm cautiously optimistic about this potential experiment. It looks nice and dandy if your website is only using Posts and Pages, but how about those that are built with CPTs? Will those CPTs caused the UI to revert to "Classic" view and split the UX again? How about page builders that are themes-based (like Bricks)? It'll be a huge shame if this is limited to just Gutenberg themes (and it feels as if they are just trying to eliminate options). At the very least, there should have an option such as dropping theme.json in a child theme or something and have all this enabled without splitting the experience between the New and Classic.
It’s a great kickoff to something that has some much needed functionality. I can only hope they’ll roll this out for everyone, not just those using block based themes. Super cool, though!
As you say, if these new UI features are limited to the FSE expereince and the rest of us in normal page builder land are left with the legacy dashbaord views then we are falling between two stools. I always get the sense that the G team are very much intent on this as their strategy in an atempt to make converts of us, something that is bound to fail. BTW, your T-shirt is very disconcerting for me today the ® is overflow: hidden;
5:56 - What would be *great* there, re pinned pages/posts list, would be a *global* «pin the column» feature, one that is available for any column, so one could choose to pin the left hand menu column (and select icon vs text version) independently of the «pin pages/posts list»-view - making it a global «pin any column»-feature would open this up as global feature for any column allowing for a more flexible setup for individual preferences and needs. Looking a bit further and bringing *woocommerce* into the mix, the way the experimental product editing view in woocommerce is now, with multiple pages for each products details, and multiple clicks in and out of sections and pages for even the simplest changes vs a quick scroll down a product page to quickly access a section or a field, is that such a «pinned column»-feature would allow for woocommerce to offer 2 versions of the new interface: one that is the tabbed product options view (current view in the new Woo dashboard experience) and a view where *everything* about a product is available as a scrollable, section based view on one page, but either the sections available in a left hand column for quick access and overview. Doing a global «pin column» function would allow for that to be part of core and therefor a GUI feature to use across plugins views as well. Some people prefer tabbed/paged views, some people prefer every option listed as before based on how much quicker it is to just scroll down a long page rather than clicking in and out of things, this would cater to both.
This gutenbergization adds nothing new, only casualness. Yes, it's nice to have rounded corners and empty space. But on the practical side, those big indents only steal screen space. Those icons without text only make them harder to understand and make the buttons smaller. First of all, show that you keep and do not complicate all the functionality in table view mode, on which all admin plugins (like CPT work, Admin columns, duplication, etc.) that add to the classic post table are based. And only then you can make improvements.
Looks GREAT, not gonna lie, but as long they keep support for classic themes/code - WP will live. WP is too good and advanced CMS to be turned into something that looks like a freshly released hobby project.
And then finally define rules of engagement for plugins before they clock up the system again: No icons in admin sidebar, no styling in admin sidebar, no promotion, no please review, no upgrade now or die, no funky top bar admin stuff, if add new smth place within add new and so on and on and on. If not met, ban from community
