I could be in minority here, but I actually prefer this dash over the one I had in my 1995 Tahoe.
Pretty much comes down to a personal preference thing.
The biggest beef that I had with that style (besides aesthetics) was that they were designed to eliminate options for aftermarket audio systems.
Besides the odd size/styling of the factory unit, if you wanted auxiliary media (which at that time was cassette,) it went in that cubby in the middle of the dash.
From what I remember (haven't seen one in awhile) the refresh was just less awkward.