I think this is what people overlook most of the time. I did not use the calendar app because it was overloaded with things that were completely unnecessary for ME. Now, it is much simpler, might start using it.
Majority of their users probably are better off with the new calendar app, so they readjusted it for a better fit. If it turns out this is not the case, they will change it further, maybe bring some old functionalities back.
They focus on what will please majority of their users, as any other company would and should, not their power users.
I did not use the calendar app because it was overloaded with things that were completely unnecessary for ME. Now, it is much simpler, might start using it.
What's wrong with just ignoring the features you don't need (yet)? All software has a learning curve. The more you use it, the more features you should discover and find useful. Trying to flatten the learning curve by removing features (or making it much harder to discover them) just keeps more users from ever advancing beyond the "novice" stage, because there isn't all that much more to discover.
Power users became power users because they explored and discovered more functionality, and this is because they were motivated to explore in the first place; extremely simplified UIs reduce much of this motivation, which results in less power users - and eventually developers. Maybe "we don't want power users and want them to disappear" is their goal (I hope not but wouldn't be surprised if it implicitly is), but this constant trend of lowest-common-denominator dumbing-down apps is, in the long term, not beneficial to anyone.
Software should have defaults that make it easy to use initially for the beginner, but it should also encourage growth of the user's knowledge. Instead we get software that's easy to use initially - and then effectively stunts their growth, and all the aesthetics they throw at it cannot compensate for functionality. I think it's really quite sad; although if you believe in the theory that Google is aiming to take away user's control over their devices and replace it with Google's, then it makes a lot of sense to keep users as blissfully ignorant as possible. ("You can't easily check your schedule anymore... but look, we gave you beautiful rounded buttons!")
From the parent:
is essentially now unusable on the phone for anything other than a near-term agenda/itinerary.
Looking at the way it doesn't even show the year anymore, "near-term" is right!
Majority of their users probably are better off with the new calendar app, so they readjusted it for a better fit. If it turns out this is not the case, they will change it further, maybe bring some old functionalities back.
They focus on what will please majority of their users, as any other company would and should, not their power users.