The people behind this layout had some good ideas and also explained the changes they made.
To me, Amarneethi's layout is also appealing and I welcome the general simplification of the UI. Instead of arguing whether white on dark is good or bad and whether the icons are nice and expressive (that mostly depends on taste; FWIW I personally like both, basically, but would make it optional), I'd say to first discuss the flaws of the current UI and then have a look at how it can be improved, how the two proposed UIs handle those flaws, and whether the changes are technically feasible.
Amarneethi, I agree with Alexandre that it would help people looking at your mockups a lot if you explained the thought process behind it.
PS: Shlomi, Brynn, as you don't like the dark-on-white layout, have a look at Amarneethi's last mockup, which is dark-on-white.