I will just add that as screens get wider, and thus relatively shorter, it
makes more sense to have the status area on the left, rather than the top. I
liked it better on the left anyway. I have oodles of screen space left to
right; not so much top to bottom. But, I've seen more than one serious
FileMaker developer with rotate-able portrait screens, set up for portrait.
I wonder if that influence pushes the evolution of the UI to some degree.

I do like the new buttons for end users, Save as Excel, etc.

Geoff