Focus group is a good idea. Regs will notice things others don't. My previous post was a first impression but you make good points. I don't usually display avatars either. At first (without avatars) the new format threw me off because I didn't understand why the cards were sitting so low. Then it occurred to me they might be doing something similar to full tilt with the avatars.
After a while, I turned them off again. Like you I found them distracting when playing more than one table. The whole thing looks great if playing one table in full screen but gets confusing when multi-tabling. Also, its confusing the way the chips (bet amounts) of players next to each other sit so close together. Too easy to misread a bet size. They should be spaced further apart.
View attachment 255942
Finally, it happened several times yesterday that the action buttons at a table just disappeared when it was my turn to act, and I could do nothing but sit there and wait to time out. I tried to close the table and re-open, but when I did that I was automatically sat out and hand folded. I hope this glitch gets fixed pronto.