Nothing of value was lost.

"Do you really know what an atom is, or that a Higgs boson is a rather important thing, or did you simply accept they were what someone told you they were?" ---> No I don't know what an atom is first hand. But to know everything first hand isn't practical either. There's just way too much information out there to experience, if one embarks on such a journey.

Sounds like a perfect job for Canonical!

And what stops you from ejecting/jumping off the plane??

And I wonder if they probably did this on purpose. First let the screenshots leak publicly, then depending on the overall response decide whether to protest their removal or not.

They probably forgot that users are tired of changing UIs and Themes. Why is it that every time a new relase of windows comes out there has to be some change in the UI?