Nice though cosmetics are the least of my issues with 26. Usability really tanked across the OS, crap ton of baffling choices that make it much harder and unintuitive to use.

This has been a thing since 26.1 I believe.

I believe so, too. I’ve updated to 26.2 today and haven’t seen any changes on the interface front.

It doesn't address the UI elements that used to be on an opaque pane, and now are floating above a busy, blurred mess.

I don't like transparency but for me it's not the main problem with iOS 26, the main problem is that new controls (and their placement) waste too much space on a small iPhone SE screen.