I was shocked by the GUI at first as well, but after some tweaking, i actually like the new design already more than C12, especially the mixer.
In most of the screenshots i’ve seen, the problem is with the high contrast colors. When you set the color scheme to a warm grey, and reduce the track color’s saturation (to 45 % in my case), it looks much easier to the eye.
See pics:
It may also actually matter what screen size/resolution you have. I remember that the major GUi change of Cubase 10 (or was it 11 ?) looked horrible on my old 22" screen. When i changed to 27", everything looked really beautiful.
The inconsistency at some places and the bright white menu will hopefully be fixed.