Personally, I like it because it limits column width which makes it easier for me to read text.

You actually can switch to a single-column layout in Plus under the "More" menu. It still limits column width, however, and when I've pointed that out to people that complain about multi-column, the response has generally been "but then you have so much wasted space!"

Seems like a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation to me.