From one side the look itself is more modern and appealing
From the other side I feel that it provides less varied viewing experience and less possibilities for exposing of my own work.
In this respect the random selection from the popular galleries is much more useful. Right now I see basically the same topics and the same leading images when I open Pbase. For example
http://www.pbase.com/firstbrook/image/71423100
is a nice image but it has nothing which warrants its appearance every fifth opening. The same regards the leading image in architecture topic and so on. The result is that for a viewer it is less likely to see something new and refreshing. For a poster this means less exposure of his/her work to a larger audience.
In my case this change resulted in about 70% drop in visitors to my galleries. If this persists it would be difficult to resist temptation to find another venues for exposure of my work.
I think that the designers should find ways to more serious rotation of the exposed galleries on the basis of popularity while maintaining the pleasing aethsetic effects of the new design.