I updated my Chrome today (Mac OSX) and the graphics took a huuuuge step backward. Almost like someone accidentally published the Linux build to the Mac link. A couple of my friends have reported the same experience, but I don't see anything official about this. Am I going to have to attempt to downgrade to get the better UI back?
It's the new "material design". You can disable it in chrome://flags to get the non Windows 95 style back. I too hate it. Not sure what the recent design trend of sucking all colour from UIs is hoping to achieve.
When they eventually remove the Material UI toggle from chrome://flags, I'd recommend installing a Chrome theme that you like rather than rolling back actual security patches and bug fixes.
I don't know what you guys changed under the hood, but I'm
experiencing the exact opposite of your first paragraph claims:
most videos don't work, and it's draining my macbook's battery
at an unprecedented rate. I can live with my flash videos not
working, but the reduced battery life is making chrome
unusable.