First, I agree communication around this wireframe topic has been quite poor and confusing. There will be a fast way to switch to wireframe display, most likely using a wireframe draw mode with a shortcut as there was in 2.7x.
Second, the user interface changes are being done by the same people who designed and implemented the Blender 2.5x UI, and everyone has a long experience using Blender that goes back to much earlier versions. Finding a better alternative to wireframes is something that Ton has been pushing for, and of course he is the one who originally designed Blender.
You can certainly disagree with design decisions, but that doesn’t mean there is no reasoning behind them or that most other Blender users would be unhappy with the changes. I remember quite a few design changes that were controversial in 2.5x (like switching to vertical panels), that are practically never mentioned nowadays. The best way to have an impact on development is to just provide constructive feedback here with practical suggestions. It’s almost always possible to find solutions to keep existing users happy and make things more friendly for new users, but it takes some iteration and temporary breakage to get there.