> I don't think I understand your point.  All the packages you mentioned
> display text.

Everything in Emacs is text, let's not pretend that every buffer is
used for editing, because it's not.

Magit is an interface to Git. It displays visual information about
repository. It displays hunks. Hunks are text, but in Magit we're
supposed to interact with hunks as with interface items. We can fold
those and unfold hunks. We can stage and stash hunks. We can open hunk
in Ediff. I wonder what would you say if in some GUI app interface
suddenly becomes as long as the text in it and goes from block shape
to teared down cardboard shape.

Though here's an example why old behavior is better, and it's based on
other apps, since I see that you value this argument, by referring to
external word processors. Emacs has a built in merge tool: Ediff, and
it is also used for diffing buffers side by side, and it's way more
natural to see extended highlighting, as it is done in other merge
tools outside Emacs.

Meld:

Emacs:
> I still don't see why "broke visuals" is what it did.  I happen to
> think that the new appearance is not worse, and sometimes better than
> the old one.

Perhaps you're the only one who do not see it. The key words here are
/some times/, and trust me, I see it as /rare times/ and not as /most
of the times/.

> And this feature was discussed at length before implementing, so it
> isn't like it came out of the blue.

I'm a Emacs user, and I'm not associated with development by any
means. I just updated my Emacs, as I do every day, and spotted the
change that seem to look like a bug. I asked on the web, and was
suggested to post a bug report about it.

> How about if you try using this feature for a week or so, and see if
> you become accustomed to it nonetheless?

I was already using this feature for a while and see how wrong it is
for my workflow of using Ediff and Magit alone. There's also Org mode
that was themed in a way that I can see different sections separated
by beyond EOL highlighting and source blocks were blocks.

--
Best regards,
Andrey Orst