I appreciate that whomever is making the decision(s) to change the homepage doesn't care one bit what I think, but the new design looks horrendous and I'm baffled as to why anyone thought it was a good idea.

All I can figure is:

1) Someone felt the need to change things to justify their continued existence; and

2) Someone was tasked with finding a way to increase page clicks.

If that was the motivating factor, then I guess the redesign is a success. Well done...