(And it is easier for me when I will inevitably go back and read all of the Weekly Design Contest Entries for the 4th time).
Wait. What? It's easier, when you go back and look at all the contests, to click on 102 threads separately? We've gotta get you a new computer -- yours ain't doin' it right.
i mean, how are you doing it? opening all 300 pages in one thread or something?
We can have a reasonable, fair disagreement as to which is format is more convenient overall -- there are advantages and disadvantages to each. But what you wrote above, regarding specifically "when I will inevitably go back and read all of the Weekly Design Contest" (which was the subject), makes no sense. No matter how you open them, if you want to look through all past contests, the clicks are increased, and the convenience decreased, by separate threads. If you disagree, please explain your precise math.
Back to the general topic, my only concern is that we lose casual users, and casual users are how the thread grows. I understand that I am in the minority and will drop the subject.
It's easier to find a particular contest than to search into a big thread that barely loads on mobile because of all of the pictures in it anyway. So yeah, there's a lot to gain here in term of convenience. Not only that, but all Weekly Contest threads can be regrouped in this subforum, once again, making it easier to find them.
As for losing users to this contest, I don't think there's cause for concern. Contest #101 had 19 entries and contest #102 had 22. These numbers are well within the norm of submissions when compared to the 100 other contests. And these last 2 contests have been particularly hard too. I, myself, have not participated in both and I'm normally active here. I didn't participate, not because it's less convenient with this updated format, but because I found these 2 contests difficult to create something for. Maybe other users felt like me too. Anyway, all of that to say, let's not be too hasty to jump to conclusions.