I agree too, and also think that the change will have (and is having) repercussions for how the game is played. But, note, you've missed out the word 'change' in your response, and I suspect it's this that upsets some more than "unnecessary and niggling laws".
Whatever the statistics show, the problem with playing out from the back is that if it goes wrong, the likelihood of the opposition creating a goalscoring opportunity is extremely high, whereas this isn't the case with the long ball goal kick. We pre-Potter B&HA fans are extremely familiar with...