It looks like they wanted to simply flatten the Chrome logo, but the gradients radically change it from a sphere with a central "node" facing us to an unappeali

It looks like they wanted to simply flatten the Chrome logo, but the gradients radically change it from a sphere with a central "node" facing us to an unappealing doughnut shape with some sort of "nipple" in the center. And while the gloss of the original may have been a bit much, it allowed the colors to be a bit more vibrant. Now they've been diluted down to these pastel colors which are also very unappealing. The original Chrome logo isn't perfect, it looks a little too slick, but it was the best visual design to come out of google (besides some amazing google doodles of course) and now it seems that they've dumbed it down to match the more simple and design-agnostic approach that is typical for google.