Yes, your reaction is a perfect example of what I wrote about the decision to get rid of the green color in the logo:

“When you replace something that was even average, but was easily recognizable, you have killed any brand equity.”

Now that I read down to the bottom of your article, I realize our thinking was identical in doing logo comparisons. (I didn’t care to comment on the logo until I read a review of it that reminded me of a snooty wine reviewer:

What you may enjoy was my deconstruction of the new Medium logo, after finding a source on the web that pointed out the font it might be.