The new placement of the commit metadata beneath the file list is surprising and strange.

In 1.8, as you scanned from top-left to bottom-right in the UI there used to be a natural progression from generic to specific, and from broad to detailed:

• Branches in the sidebar
• commit log in top pane
• selected-commit-specific info in the bottom pane.

Within the bottom pane, you had a similar logic:

• metadata in the top-left area
• then the list of files beneath that
• then the diff to the right.

The flow was obvious: if A appears below or to the right of B, then A is more specific or detailed than B. Moving the metadata, which is general, below the file list, which is more specific, breaks up that flow and seems jarring.