I have a hard time believing this myself, but it seems like Google managed to create an update that doesn't suck ass.
The start page is less cluttered, there are no annoying recommended videos along the side, you can access playlists without realoading the entire page, the playlists themselves no longer suck etc. The only problems are that the page doesn't align properly (aligns to the left instead of the center), and that the recommended videos are shown instead of your subscriptions at the start page by default, but I think Google will fix this soon. This is easily the best update they've ever put out.