Just to add evidence to my feedback above. Here is a clear example on mobile of how the new (quite pointless) changes interfere with the experience. With the top highlighted area taking up just as much screen estate as the actual content that we want to view, the text by CWS (sorry to use you as an example!)

I’m indifferent to badges! Personally I’m not a fan of making everything online a gamification just to keep up retention rates and attract users. Are we that short minded or have such lack of attention spans we need shiny new things waved in our face?! Rhetorical question!! FT does that through the content, knowledge, wisdom, insights itself. It’s a brilliant place for that without look-at-me badges! Have badges if it’s really been a frequently requested feature but don’t have them on every single post, every single user makes and detract from the main purpose of FT.