I wrote a scathing review of recent Dolphin UI changes on the KDE forum recently. I and others were complaining about changes severely affecting the usability of Dolphin. I had been waiting for a fix for months to what I assumed was a bug. When I went searching to see if a bufix was in the works, I was shocked to find out this was a deliberate modification to Dolphin on the KDE Devs part.
Others were complaining of about how the changes destroyed their workflow, as Dolphin had always brightly highlighted the last directory visited while file browsing. The complaints from others had fallen on deaf ears for months as the devs continued to justify why they felt their changes were an improvement.
I attacked the changes not from a usability standpoint, but from the way it negatively affected users with visual and memory impairments. I criticised them for making KDE more difficult to use for users suffering from disabilities, when they claim they are trying to make KDE easier to use for the segment of the population suffering with disabilities.
Up until then every KDE dev that had responded to peoples criticisms had claimed they were justified in their changes. After my post, a dev finally responded that they had listened to their users complaints and they would reverse the changes to Dolphin. Unfortunately, the response didn’t sound like reverting the change was a priority and they would get to it when they had time.
At least the devs listened, but when it actually happens is a whole different matter.