One of the things I've loved about Dragon since 3E is the willingness to try new things with design. Sure, it may not have always worked, but you didn't see any mainstream magazines using a building cross-section as a ToC. Why has it suddenly dropped back to such basic, boring stuff?
Phillip, I am the former art director to Dragon magazine and was responsible for the layout you described. I am Lisa Chido's predecessor, as she preceeded Sean Glenn. The three of us all have different design backgrounds and personal tastes. You've undoubtedly seen the shift from my work (issues 274-289ish), through Lisa's (290ish-recent), and now Sean's.
Sean Glenn is no stranger to design though the magazine may feel sparse. This is not to excuse or apologize for Mr. Glenn's work (which I've admired for many years even before his work on Dragon). Sean is a consummate designer...a designer's designer...he has an impeccable eye for good design. First, for you critical readers, give him some time to find a proper rhythm and you will realize that you are in great hands. He's done excellent work within the gaming industry for many years and I've stolen more than a few of his innovative ideas.
An art director/designer has some fundamental concerns when approaching magazine design. There are functional constraints...you cannot design and produce a magazine under a production deadline to the degree you might without a deadline. As a "survivor" of magazine design, it's probably okay to reveal that most magazines are created in about one gnarly week of work. Take a look at the credits pages (near the front) and see how many people are working on the magazine then look at any other magazine on a retail shelf and you'll see what an astonishing feat this is. Dragon's staff is really, really small. It's the cost of not being a web-based magazine. Magazine design is a specialized field as there are a billion little "rules" to follow while trying to remain innovative, intuitive, and deliver the content in a supportive way. Magazine designer certainly is a prestige class...though it should probably be called "Insanely Creative Workaholic."
Safe design is almost always better than unsuccessful design. When my first issue of Dragon came out it featured all kinds of junky textures. It looked like Janis Joplin's tiedyed blouse after a heavy night of drinking. It just wasn't very legible but it sure was fun to create! Readers from all over felt compelled to let us know how much they hated it and how fired I should become. We toned it down and found other opportunities for innovation.
Innovation takes time and meditation; two luxuries magazine teams rarely have. The only way that we could find time to explore fun things like the exploded-view map/Table of Contents (or my personal favorite, the Caves of Contents in 287) was by neglecting other important aspects of the magazine. The idea came after illustration commissions were long past and I drew it myself...like the shields in 274s Heraldry article...like the isometric views of so many Sage Advices and Dungeoncrafts. My motto is, "If you want something done half-assed, do it yourself." The only bonus to this approach is blasting Slayer in the office at 3 in the morning.
Attentive readers like Longman may recall the disasterous ToC that had the pages all splayed out without illustrations (Shannara issue I think). Readers didn't get it, didn't want to get it, and thought that having me tarred and feathered would be more fun. We realized that just because I thought it was a cool idea didn't actually make it a cool idea.
Cost is always a concern. Illustrating a magazine is no inexpensive proposition. Illustrators need to eat and they should be paid for the professional work that they do. More illustrations means more expense, more ads, perhaps higher subscription costs, and certainly less textual content. It's a give-and-take.
In the end, I'm not very fond of the new look of Dragon. Not because it doesn't look more like what I would have done with it (well, maybe just a little), but because it hasn't found it's rhythm yet. I've never found a redesign's first issue to be satisfactory...it comes with time. And it WILL come...I have every faith in Sean's work (he kicks ass), and in all of Dragon's excellent readers to trust the editorial team's judgement.
Congratulations on your new magazine, guys!