I will admit and say it was very stupid of me to say that Alpha 1.2.6 was better for not having more blocks, there are a lot of nublocks (like slabs) that are VERY useful in building - it's more due to the fact that I build very simple structures that don't need attention-capturing colors.
The new textures would be superior if they were sharper. The heavy antialiasing makes them all look blurry. I tried making an example of what I mean but I'm no artist.
the old ones are really nostalgic but the new ones are just better. sorry oldbraps, you know it's true
also if you say you play any version pre-1.12 you're a larper who probably rarely even plays the game anymore