I'm wondering why so many of the latest published adventures use such simple maps?  The first several books used much more artistic, immersive maps.  Upon seeing those I set up my gaming table with a projector overhead that projects the map onto the table.  The players loved it!  It's much more immersive.  The maps that have come out with the last few adventures remind me of the same old graph paper maps we used back in the early 80's.  It's 2019!  I know people are going to post stating the latest ones are easier or cheaper to print.  If you are going to spend hours of your time sitting around a table playing with your friends don't you want the best map possible?  I would think it would be worth it to print them off in color.  Anyway, that's my rant...

I think part of the reason is they're easier to translate to paper/battle mat by hand. Most people who play IRL don't print maps, or use screens/projectors, people usually either describe them for the players to map out, or draw them out beforehand. The gorgeous and detailed maps are, while nice to look at, much harder to translate quickly and clearly. The new, retro-style maps however are a lot easier, at least in my experience.

I'm running both Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (coloured map) and a series of Eberron adventures using the maps from the Eberron and Ravnica books (retro, line art style). Copying the latter maps is an order of magnitude quicker and easier. Sure, the full colour maps look great on roll20, but it's a lot of visual noise when I'm trying to describe to the players the size of a room and the positions of doors.

I think there might also be a retro factor involved; WotC trying to capture that classic, 80's style intentionally.

Finally, and this might be me giving them too much credit, but maybe WotC is trying to show to all those budding D&D adventure creators out there that you don't need to be an artist to put good maps in your products. The current style of maps are effective, evocative and look good (imo).

I like the new style of maps, they're easy to use, clean to read and aren't a challenge to reproduce the style of.

That was the first thing I noticed in Dragon Heist after playing SKT. We play online using Roll20, and the reduction in map quality was very disappointing.

That isn't D&D Beyond's fault though, its WotC who produces the maps for the books.

I agree about the maps becoming less inspiring, even though I build most of them with Dwarvenforge. The Essentials Kit went back to the way it should be done, and it’s more helpful when adding details to 3-D builds. That’s because I can actually see how it’s imagined rather than reading the description and trying to interpret what it’s supposed to look like. Just my 2¢. For what it’s worth, I realize it’s WotC and not Dnd Beyond’s decision. But they don’t have official forums anymore so, eh...

My opinion is a little bit split on the simple maps. On one hand, when I'm playing on a VTT, I have found that detailed maps and grids kill some of my immersion and ability to imagine what is "actually" there in the game narrative, instead of what I see painted. So simplified maps are better at reminding me to use my imagination and not get locked into a 2-dimensional space. On the other hand, pretty art is beneficial to tone and atmosphere, not to mention presentation.

In either case, what I'll say about the simplified maps is that after having spent time inputting Dragon Heist into FoundryVTT, I was absolutely grossly disgusted to discover that many maps in Dragon Heist have hand drawn squares, and maps with multiple levels do not place the different levels on any kind of attempted grid alignment. Mind you I don't just mean that the squares are artistically drawn to give a vibe of such, but I mean in some cases that the squares are misshapen and go off-whackado immediately. Not a problem on a tabletop. Not a huge problem even on a VTT, but it means I can't use the grids, I have to go gridless and forfeit rulers, or I have to get as close as possible to the fake-grid and just ignore the lines on the battle map entirely. So.. lots of tiny problems that compound into a frustration when you take pride on presentation as a DM.

Exactly this. If you want simple maps that's fine, but the maker needs to learn to use a ruler.

Quote from Houligan >>

Exactly this. If you want simple maps that's fine, but the maker needs to learn to use a ruler.

 Now this I agree with. Sure, love the aesthetic, but function over form. The maps should align to the grid and levels should line up with each other