I can't agree. The design of old was hideous and didn't age well. It would look incredibly dated today.
The answer is obvious.
Now go here and tell me which row looks better: http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2015/4/7/fall-of-the-designer-...
Many would say the first row, with the darker stitched background. It doesn’t shine in your face. The icons are all beautiful and not clown-like, plus the background is darker and easier to look at, just like on Android.
But the worst part is the usability nightmare slowing down users and weighing them down with cognitive baggage in every app because of the removal of essential affordances. And I’m saying this according to Apple’s own guidelines for 30+ years based on actual human usability guidelines: http://cheerfulsw.com/2015/destroying-apples-legacy/