@michaelmyers1, yes it does sound like Overture, but it also sounds like the interface for Studio One, Sonar, Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. Interface development has been trending in this direction for some time because it's proven successful for these types of applications. It's the kind of thing that may not get a lot of appreciation at the moment, but I have a feeling if Notion 6 popped up with such a UI, people would respond very positively to the workflow benefits.
That said, I agree that other things should be prioritized above a UI overhaul, but I wouldn't vote against one either. Will an improved UI/workflow make Notion worse or better? For folks who think "worse" then downvote away. But some folks seem to use downvoting because they feel other stuff should get done first, and that's not productive at all. For me, a UI overhaul might be more important than someone else's beloved feature, if everyone were to downvote every feature that weren't important to them, we'd be counting votes by what had the least negative numbers. I think the best approach is: 1) do you think it makes the program better, if yes: upvote, 2) does it not matter to you at all, if yes: then don't vote, 3) will development of a feature make the program somehow worse, which should be rate, if yes, then downvote.