Hmmm... would have expected a discussion about the motivations for such a change, as I see it this is just cult worship (coupled with groupthink down-modding for even voicing an alternative opinion).... I expect more from this community (cue baseless down-modding)
There were some blog posts by Google explaining the results of some of their changes. For example apparently they don't even deliver valid HTML to speed up loading time, as that has been shown to retain more users.