• this comment was more about the futility of the development time that went into this specific feature

      yeah sorry, I should have been more specific with my answer: features like this are supposed to help you in a touch screen situation or in general with smaller screens.
      When the window is resized under a certain size, the left panel becomes hidden and with it part of the top bar, to make it less cluttered and confusing.

        • The difference is minimal, in the newer version you have 1 less element when the sidebar is collapsed (the hamburger menu).
          Generally speaking Gnome 44 is already well optimized, 45 is going to be a more “tweaks and small improvements” kind of update rather than a big design changes