I always use Ctrl-k to change it back to the old way, I'd definitely support making the old way the default again.
Especially because what tends to get cut off is the most useful information. E.g., I tried mighty blow against a monster. The result of my attack is gone, I just see all the monster attacks. I think my attack is the relevant one there (or critical hits from monsters)
It feels like what I really want is a "smart" display that, if the buffer is too long, causes all "the <foo> missed you" and "you deflect the foo" to be skipped (but still in the message buffer). I only need to see hits and my attacks.