Given that many screens these days are either 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio, it makes sense to try and minimize the amount of vertical space/rows of pixels used up

Given that many screens these days are either 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio, it makes sense to try and minimize the amount of vertical space/rows of pixels used up by the user interface. Screens these days have much more horizontal space to spare than vertical space. Compact mode increases the amount of content that can be displayed on the screen. I like that.