I think if most people genuinely liked these features, you'd see people say that more when they're being discussed. What's more likely (and what I see way more often) is the second thing you mentioned: that most people don't really care and just go on with life. But if most users don't care, it again begs the question of why waste time making these changes at all. It seems like it's just to keep the UI design team busy more than anything.