Thanks for the detailed article Justin! We've certainly attracted more attention and discussion than expected. Fixes for a few issues are rolling out already, and more PRs are in the works. It looks like the biggest issues are on the Translate site where the sticky header interferes with other important headers in the UI.

Just to make sure your readers are clear: the header and footer redesign work was done as part of the News site redesign. That's been in the works since Beatriz's post last July. Turns out that the way the header and footer code is handled across WordPress.org is quite complex and fragile. Rolling it out across (almost) everything at once was the best way to solve that without breaking servers. In sparing the servers we've unintentionally stepped on some human toes; we'll certainly take all the feedback on board and try to handle that better next time.

As you note both the News redesign and the header/footer change have GH repos. I'd like to encourage your readers to contribute there, including opening issues: