I don't hate it, but I still prefer to use the mobile site..and I generally like to make everything dark.
This reminds me a lot of Something Awful, just using newer design trends.
Personally I don't think it looks bad at all, but by spacing everything out they're actually taking away one of the unsaid ideals of why GAF is such a hub - immediacy.
I think by packing all these threads together, it just made you feel there's a wall of information, so you'd better pay attention.
GAF may be a forum, but I feel its strength has been that it feels more like a bulletin board with a comments system akin to a forum. Combining these two things I felt gave GAF a lot of what made it GAF.