Designer mockups and the actual end result don't always end up being the exact same for various reasons. Nothing a little CSS won't change, from what I can tell the biggest difference is the contrast on the panel edges and the background on the read/unread/selected messages.
The road map does state Q4 2022 as a target so I imagine the work has just taken too much time already and the version 115 deadline wasn't made.
If the UI platform you're using supports themes, this can usually be fixed with that. Provide one default theme that looks perfectly polished, and another more compact one for power users.
Which do you default to for someone coming from years of Thunderbird usage? How in-your-face is compact mode toggle in the ootb experience for a fresh install? And sadly how many people are going to be new to Thunderbird these days?
If I got the 'polished' version as part of the normal update cycle I'd be upset that my tight, space-efficient and incredibly responsive productivity app had decided to use a design language that reduces information displayed. The point of email is to communicate information and I now have to interact with the UI more than I did before to get the same amount of information.
The launched version hits the density that Thunderbird has been for about a decade and is what I'd prefer (ie the compact mode might be better for those being upgraded).
Best is to ask them in my opinion. After the update: „we have a new design, do you want to use it or do you want to stay on the more compact design? You can change it any time in the settings menu <placeholder>“. The dialog should have pictograms of both designs.
>"If I got the 'polished' version as part of the normal update cycle I'd be upset"
Thanks! Glad you mentioned it! On Linux the Thunderbird update is just one among many other updates in an update batch, so usually it will just be installed with the rest of the updatable items. I will have to pay attention now, so I don't install this unwittingly.
> "The point of email is to communicate information"
Deserves repetition.
> have to interact with the UI
This interaction is a cost, and you pay. I like mine cheap.
For Windows they're not pushing current 102 users to the new design yet. This matches some of the previous rollouts where the auto-upgrade branch is treated a bit more like 'stable' or 'ESR' might be in Linux and Firefox ESR.
I'm seeing a density picker right on the announcement page. I don't think you need to use the calm, whitespaced version of the theme if you don't want to.
The road map does state Q4 2022 as a target so I imagine the work has just taken too much time already and the version 115 deadline wasn't made.