I love the new layout! Totoro and Avian are gorgeous and I just love the layout. Its brilliant. It'll take forever to get used to it but its deffinately a change I love. Its awesome. And Epic.
The money thing was never something I wanted, but its the lesser of two evils. As long as the monthly pets are free and we do get some free items then I can deal with it. If its that or the site going down because you can't pay for it then I'll go paying for things every time. It would be great it it weren't neccesary, but as it is then people will have to deal.
ETA: Everything is epic. Items included. I can't get over it. I knew something big was happening when it kept getting 403 errors but... wow.