Github is certainly used by developers. But I bet 95%+ of views of repositories’ start pages are made by “consumers” of that code.
At least in my workflow, I visit dozens of those pages every week to, for example, choose between alternative libraries.
My own projects’ index pages are definitely a small percentage of the total. And for those views, I would still prefer this redesign that gives me a quick overview of what’s happening.
Personally, I'm reading the README and/or looking at the contents of files. Plus looking at issues. Very rarely am I looking for the releases tab.
I'm amused that people are using the "I only do this every 6 months so I can't remember where it is" argument. If you only need the functionality every 6 months, perhaps not having it in your face every time you use it might be a good thing ...
Isn't the point that everything should be easy to get to (even if you’ve never been to releases, it should be obvious how to get there) but frequently-accessed things should require less effort?
At least in my workflow, I visit dozens of those pages every week to, for example, choose between alternative libraries.
My own projects’ index pages are definitely a small percentage of the total. And for those views, I would still prefer this redesign that gives me a quick overview of what’s happening.