Always love these posts. You can guarantee some will flock in to proclaim it's the best thing in the world.

I understand what you are getting at here.
Even for a new user, the new GUI isn't really easy to get around. The screen real estate is taken up somewhat, although with the use of screensets, this can be sorted to your liking. I still love sonar 8/8.5 it was an easy interface with no frills, not overly polished and tbh, I prefered it like that. It was more functional looking. Now it's kinda like a posh toy. 
It does take time to get back into it, and in some ways it is probably easier for those newbies who didn't jump on the wagon back in the days of 8.5
I've spent ages digging around the interface to find things, still not 100% on it now, and with x3 coming and the Gibson thing going on, I will probably hold out for a year or so to see how things are going.

I thought that as producer incremented towards the 8.3 version the amount of clutter of radio buttons was cumbersome....
 
As others mentioned, the X series, is so much more intuitive, once you become comfortable with navigating through the different multidocks....
 
I wish the interface I use at work for sequencing machines was multidock....resizing windows is a drag

thebiglongy
Always love these posts. You can guarantee some will flock in to proclaim it's the best thing in the world.

Perhaps it's because many people actually do pefer it over 8.5 or earlier?   It is possible.
 
The simple fact is that the 8.5 UI wasn't "better", just different.   I've been around here as long as anyone, and I happen to like the direction CW has taken.  This is entirely a case of YMMV and will probably never change.  Well, actually I hope it does change because I also hope CW will continue to tweak the X* UI and workflow like they did between X1 and X2.  
 

I find it interesting that it can be uncool to like the software you use. But very cool to flip it off and stay with the previous version that countless folks also quacked about. Entertainment thread. Thanks OP!  

Personally I would like to commend just how fabulous Sonar 8.5 must have been for the OP to have used it for 4 years with only 2, yes TWO, posts in this forum :S

delonasn
 
And you didn't even fix V-Vocal, which *was* broken and is still too unstable to be very useful.
 
Wow.  Really, really bad.  Shame on you.
 
--Nick

to set sonar x2 up to be used with V Vocal is a step in the right direction in terms of learning to use X2,keep going with the videos and books and you'll be in good shape in no time.

Not to fault anyone for liking an earlier product but 8.5 had a pretty horrendous user interface by modern standards. It had a proliferation of dialogs, floating windows, buried options and disjointed menus which were common in apps from the last era of UI design. If you were had learned all the options of course one could work fast there but it was far far worse for a newer user to get used to than X2. X2 utilizes many proven UX patterns that are known to improve productivity. For those unfamiliar with some of those patterns it might take a bit of re-learning but once you switch your mindset let me assure you that it will be far superior. 
 
We went through the exact same paradigm shift about 13 years ago when we first introduced SONAR. Anyone remember the furor when we took away the excel spreadsheet style track view columns and introduced the new track view? :) There were users for years telling us that the older interface was superior.
Any major UI change takes getting used to. The change to the X series was a difficult transition for all of us to make but it was absolutely due and required to take SONAR into the next decade of computing. 
The same applies to touch. Many think it is a gimmick but a few years from now you will wonder how you ever got on without it.
 
Have a little patience and learn the interface and you will be more than rewarded. I can barely look at 8.5 anymore - its so dated.. 

very fishy. 2 posts in 4 years? who would buy x2 right before x3 comes out? it's there a promotion? buy x3 get x2 free now? 4 engineers work out of my studio and we all love x2. it's not perfect, but it's amazing! p.s., fix take lanes. glitchy.

Change is inevitable, it's the most exciting thing about life i would say.

8.3 Pro until my machine gives up the ghost... It works well for me, and I know it.