So I scrolled through the first half of this thread and the majority of posters is disliking the new look, main argument being: it kills the tavern vibe that was the atmosphere/concept since witcher 3.
However, I've seen nobody taking 'thronebreaker' into consideration. If a gwent card game represents exactly that, a card game, in the storymode, than you can do little more than create a story where some character goes around from tavern to tavern to play friendly games of Gwent ... Not very exiting is it? Maybe you can up the stakes by adding a story element where you have to get big money fast to pay of some crooked debt-collectors or that the winner in some multi-country military conflict will be decided by a game of Gwent and the king of each nation is looking for his Gwent champion but that just sound stupid. So the limitations on this aproach are very real.
By changing the card battles to represent real battles/skirmishes CDPR allows themselves to tell interesting and exciting stories about the many factions and inhabitants of the witcher's fictional universe. Your deck here represents your warband, clashing with monster swarms, scoiatel bands, skellige maurauders etc. Getting new cards represents new allies and soldier units that join your force.
People have forgotten that thronebreaker was one of the main selling points from all the way back when Gwent was only just announced. And a lot of players are simple here because they want more witcher and they'll take whatever new lore they can, even if it's in the form of some artwork, a taunt and a short card description. Me for example, I like Gwent, played it sporadically for a total of 150 hours over the past year, put in some 40 euro's, but I'm only here because I like the witcher so damn much. This were any other card game I wouldn't care 'cause I'm not a CCG enthousiast in general.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's hard for CDPR to cater to two types of players at the same time. They need to make a polished, professional and competitive card game for CCG regulars, who might not have even played the witcher games, because those are the people that will stick around the longest. But also give the lore fans a treat, because it would be dumb on CDPR's behalf to ignore all those millions of witcher fans, who might not care al that much about a CCG but will take anything that expands on the lore.