Hmmm … I still prefer the interim behaviour of the dropdown menu itself becoming a two column admin menu - whilst this was not 100% a standard UX behaviour for a dropdown it was very convenient and requires less contortions. And the non-standard-ness is in any case moot as the new behaviour is not 100% standard intuitive UX either 
(menu item opens a sidebar?) Shame if this can’t be an option.
For selecting a plugin to change a setting we now (in DropDown mode) have to go:
- top right
- click dropdown
- click admin
- bottom left
- click plugins
- click installed
- go right select settings
versus
- top right
- click dropdown
- click admin
- scroll down
- click specific plugin
More-over, the even older behaviour of selecting Admin then Plugins also required less movement as the Plugins nav item on the top nav bar was close to the dropdown menu …