In reply to Nick.

No one is forcing this on anyone, it's a preview of a proposal. Nor am i particularly sure what Automatic has to do with this. But i know people like to blame them for all the supposed ills.

It's a preview of whats to replace the main content editor, not a redesign of the edit screen. While I agree that the UI they choose is confusing, i highly doubt that it's the proposal to strip out any and all custom meta fields. No the preview doesn't help us to understand how that will be handled but lets not be overly hyperbolic.