I was definitely frustrated with it at first too. After having worked with the older version of story maps for a few years it was a big change, but I will say that after using it now for a couple of months I've come to like it much better. It certainly is still lacking a bit from the original, but it's coming along really quickly and should soon surpass the older version. Many of the issues I originally had with it have been fixed in one way or another, if not necessarily by the same name. I think it looks a lot cleaner and more professional compared to maps I made with the older version too. From what I can see, I think one of the biggest issues is that most people are viewing things on their phones now and the older versions of story maps weren't completely compatible with phones (I had to make multiple versions of the same story map, one for desktop and one for mobile). It seems to me that the new version is limited in many ways because they're trying to make everything easily viewed on a smartphone as well as a computer or tablet. So it may be a tad more limited, at the moment, but it's allowing you to reach people on a wider array of devices now which gives your story more legs.
Just one man's opinion, but I think in another year, if not less, most people will prefer the new version.
