Ive was put in charge about 7-8 months ago, that's a super short time-line for a complete top-to-bottom rework. I'm sure some of it has been in the works for a while, but maybe not the UI, not to this degree. It comes out in the fall, there's time to fix that sort of thing.
It's still troubling that he put marketing people in charge. On the subject of the icons, anyone notice that there isn't a drop shadow on the icon or icon text? How the heck are you supposed to see your apps on a light wallpaper. *sigh*.