I've always found A List Apart something of a contradiction: a lot of their articles are better than average, but their design and usability have always been weak. Mostly, I drop in every few days to see if there's a new feature article, and don't even notice anything else on the site. So while I dislike just about everything "arty" about the new design, for many of the same reasons as you, I'm hoping the quality of the articles will stay up and I'll still get something interesting to read every couple of weeks.