I love the aesthetics of the proposed design but the main reason why the current design works way better than the proposed one is this:

With current design you can scan the new posts much faster with your eyes.

The proposed design makes your eyes jump around the screen. The current designs requires minimal movements of your eyes to see the next title. Also the smaller thumbnails of the current design don't grab attention from the titles.

In information dense sites the design should always follow functionality - not the other way around.