God forbid someone not create another Ubuntu derivative that isn't substantively different than every other Linux distro on earth, right?

Do you have a point to make about how this is better, or is this change for the sake of change?

GUI tools provide significantly better discoverability, for one. The file hierarchy is a mess to put it mildly.

Discoverability is only possible if the tool is trivial. Otherwise, you have to hide functionality inside the UI to prevent the creation of an unusable mass of buttons on the GUI's main screen. This also kills fluency, by preventing people from developing muscle memory.