Not in my opinion. We gained 2 channels in my opinion. Yes, the channels were completely in HD before, but only showed a few hours of content every day and repeated it over and over.
I don't mind "Paula's Party", but if your going to show it every few hours, at least show a DIFFERENT EPISODE! I'm going to enjoy the way the channels are now. When a show is available in HD (like a new episode of Good Eats), I'm not stuck watching a crappy, blurry SD show. I can watch the show in glorious HD.
IMHO, however, I can see how some would like the old setup. I'd like to know why Scripps doesn't do like Discovery did and have a "theater" type channel with HD shows from Food Network, and HGTV on one channel. It would also prevent the CONSTANT repeats from the old HD channels.