The changes have made it easier on me as well, I still have my vision issues but the sparklies I was getting at first have largely gone away. I always do best with dark text on a light ground, but the banner colors and thickness of the white text are readable for me now, at first I was having a lot of problems with reverse text.
There's some nice features, maybe because they are new I'll actually use and discover the ones I never knew about in the old board. But I am noticing the bolding and other changes in fonts between threads I've read and haven't, I like the click on the quote thing. And although I would like to be able to tab or otherwise move between pictures once I enlarge one, I rather like the thumbnail approach. I do notice though that my pictures taken with my camera click up larger than some I am presuming got taken with a phone.
I've been through many forums and many styles over the years, I'm so glad the gamer black background with vivid aqua letters has gone, those burned holes right through my eyes and into my brain!