What first struck me was that I could not turn off my phone the way I am accustomed to doing so.
Then I stopped to appreciate the loss of discoverability (however small). You see, a GUI with multiple (hopefully related) options can be passively scanned without interaction to see what options are available. You can learn (and passively be reminded) of available features, and new features can be added without too much nuisance as another option. You might even change your mind mid task and decide that a different option is better, whereas a "say something" prompt requires that you know in advance what the options are, and gives the feeling of not being undo-able once uttered.
Contrawise, it seems like the modern pattern tends towards adding new features hidden behind an opaque AI prompt, and having you 'learn' about the feature at the most inopportune time via a "got it, now go away" click-thru pop-up that [thankfully] only appears once.
Ok, so they somewhat covered the power options, but what about the other options (emergency call & medical info), which are presented as safety items. Are they no longer important? Are emergencies where you can push a button but not recall an AI command (or have an internet connection to converse live with an AI helper) no longer worthy of help?
I'm glad that they made it easy to change back, but it's a bit surprising that someone approved this to become the new default. And even more so, that they approved this functionality to be usurped by default (it changes it for you, and you have to change it back).
...and it's interesting that the sank effort into "teaching" the user the new way to turn off the phone when I tried to switch it back
...but not the other 'lost' features.
...and it's interesting that they sank effort into extending the "OLD" power screen to easily switch BACK to the new AI assistant mode (in case you "accidentally" switched it back).
...and it's interesting that there is no complementary option from the new AI modal to change it back to a power button.
Curious.
Android seems to be taking the path of Windows in that it is slowly accumulating a bunch of bad defaults, and one must accumulate a growing list of things you have to change to get back to a 'normal' experience.
