Ubuntu's mission statement from the start was linux for normal users. They always said that they were trying to provide a desktop for regular users, and their argument was that there are already heaps of distros out there for power users. It's not a new direction they've taken, it's just when they had the opportunity to simplify, a lot of users didn't understand what their core mission was.

Besides, if you want a Power User version of Ubuntu, just use Debian.