I think the new design both sucks and blows.
As @MK_Wizard said, they removed the “free to read” filter and have, naturally, placed all the so-called “premium” content first. When I was first checking out the new design I had to scroll through 104 “premium” comics before I found a free one under the BL section.
Worse, Tapas is actively hiding content. When I checked the LGBTQ section there were 41 comics displayed, and about 35 of those were “premium”. I subscribe to about a hundred LGBTQ comics, and there are thousands on Tapas, so why is it only showing 41?
I think they did it on purpose. This is merely another attempt to surpress small creators while pumping the “premium” ones. First it was the spam notifications. Then they restricted how you could earn ink. Now they’re burying free content. This could be the beginning of the end.