As EmCee said, this is significant mostly because it's a fairly major change almost entirely based on input from third party (FPS/western) devs who probably told Nintendo:
"WTF are you thinking with circle pads??"
"Well like EmCee said on The Bore, they look better and they're better for for parity with 3DS..."
"If you don't change it then we're passing on your console AGAIN bitches."
"Fine fine, we changed it."
"WTF is this shit?"
"Oh for... what now?"
"The fricking sticks aren't clicky!"
"We've never had clicky sticks."
"Fuck that shit and your shitty ass console."
"FINE WE'LL CHANGE THAT TOO."
Apparently they renigged or something
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=35468866&postcount=10922
So the new controller is smaller, thinner, and sleeker, the controls (sticks and start/select) are better positioned. Seems win/win to me. I don't think it looks worse, either. Less symmetrical, sure. But none of Nintendo's controllers since the SNES have been that symmetrical. Least of all the Wii's.