I totally agree. The default skin in 4.5 is absolutely terrible. Huge elements, padding, empty space, thin and faded text, low contrast, and more. It's no surprise why more and more people are choosing to use XenForo, Discord, etc., over IPB. I don't know who made the new skin, but it feels like a beginner freelancer from Dribble made it.
But why did they need to move the follow button one line down? If the follow button was positioned on the same line as the title, as before, there would be no useless empty space.
One more example:
It takes up a lot of space, but none of it is needed there.
You just entered a topic and want to reply right away? Not!
You just entered a topic and want to create a new topic right away? Of course not!
Who cares who is the author of the topic and when it was created? Nobody! For example, I have active topics on my forum that are already 12 years old. Why should I constantly show who is the author of these topics if they have not visited the forum for 10 years and everyone has already forgotten about them?? Nobody cares who is the author of the topic. This information is completely meaningless and useless.
One more example:
Am I exactly in a place for people to communicate? Because on my screen I see only a white space and a couple of lines of text. 🤦🏻♂️