The title is clickbaity, as far as I can see you still can disable chat and meet in order to get rid of the left bar, which is pretty close to the old design, i

The title is clickbaity, as far as I can see you still can disable chat and meet in order to get rid of the left bar, which is pretty close to the old design, it makes sense that they don't want to maintain both versions and it doesn't seem like a plot to ram chat down your throat.