The release method for Anki has changed because the packaging tool Anki was using has become obsolete and can no longer be used, so the latest version of Anki uses a tool called UV to package Anki.
UV is a convenient and high performance tool that was recently developed, according to a survey on a website frequently used by developers UV has become the most praised tool in 2025 (so it will likely become the standard in the future). This likely makes Anki’s installation 10 to 100 times faster, built-in programs that had been stagnant until now have been upgraded to the latest version, and this enables advanced development of add-ons so it is likely that more convenient add-ons will be released in the future. (I’m trying some of them.)
The disadvantage is that the user interface is still under development as you say, and that some users are prone to bugs. Probably the reason for this is that UV is a new project so there is relatively little information available for developers so I guess it will be resolved over time. (also it seems that UV developers are supporting Anki development on GitHub.)
GUI development is planned by Anki and is being discussed here: Consider a simple GUI for the launcher #4152