They aren't going after any metric in this specific case - they're trying to make a cleaner interface for players on smaller screens. It's extremely cluttered on mobile, so by having collapsible elements, you can still have the info easily accessible, but not have it coving up what little real estate you've got on screen.
Now, the daily login bonus? You can bet that's working to try and increase the DAU. Active players will probably log in anyways, but for newer players who get free resources? That'll probably help out a little bit
As a mobile player, I say these changes did NOT improve the experience at all, quite the opposite.
The event icon is now to the left of these interfaces on the right, which takes up MORE screen space. Plus whatever annoying ass oversized pointer icon gets stuck to the left of THAT once the event first drops.
The quest interface now has to be closed with a button all the way over on the far side of the screen. Plus there's no indication progress on DCs until you open the interface, and we're guessing the same will be true of event quests. This whole interface worked fine the way it was, so it's coming off as a needless cosmetic change for its own sake, and I'm damn tired of software doing that.
The collect all button was moved to the lower left when it probably could have just stayed on the right where it was. Unless there wasn't enough room for all those crappy purchase offers Inno keeps pushing to me every other day with collect all there and the two new additions. Worse, it occurs to me they might have broken the quest interface to make room for the collect all button!
The buff bar itself is fine, but it kind of sucks how it doesn't stay open. Tapping anywhere on the screen closes it, and you can't tap on the icons to see what they are.
So for the sake of a botched buff bar, and a daily reward feature useful mostly to new cities, Inno has worsened the entire mobile interface and made things more user-unfriendly.
