Not seen it, not used it, don't know anything about it.
Careful with the generalisation i.e. "Windows is possibly the most inconsistent GUI I have used".
This is my point: this sort of thing shouldn't be needed. Sure, put something in to force it back to the old display for compatibility, but don't default things which come with the OS to the old design.
It depends on the priorities i.e. compatibility vs visual appearance.
yet a program written to use OS2.04's asl.library will happily use OS3.9's asl.library and look the same as the programs which were written with OS3.9's version in mind.
Misapplied assumptions. Due to the nature of Window’s File Open Dialog window i.e. components/objects can be added or deleted (this is the application programmer’s decision).
Have you ever programmed in any of the visual integrated development environment (e.g. Visual Basic, Visual C, Borland C Builder, Borland Delphi, Borland J Builder and ‘etc’)?