It's not a downgrade in the sense that there was nothing else better or even at all before. This is the iOS implementation of widgets. It differs from Android. It might be seen as worse for some who are coming from Android or some other platforms or just in general. But it's not that they made a poor copy of widgets from Android or elsewhere, it's just that they made their own implementation of widgets (whether or not they are better or worse compared to Android is separate from that basically).
This was taken from a different thread that I wrote, but if the keynote is any indication of what developers can do with widgets then there should be no excuse as to why we don't have android like functionality in iOS widgets...
I wish that developers would take full advantage of the new api's they have available to use in their apps in every new iteration of iOS. For instance, I remember during the iOS 8 keynote when they demoed widgets for the first time. They specifically showed off the possibilities of what the widgets could do with an Ebay widget. It was so useful and practical being able to watch your bids and place bids all within the widget displaying the interactivity one can have. Now, you're hard pressed to find widgets that have any level of interactivity without the need for the widget to open it's native app taking you away from the widget (the new shazaam widget being a prime example of the interaction taking you directly to the app instead of staying in the widget). Even recently with the iOS 10 keynote, apple once again demoed the awesome new interactivity with the espn app where not only can you view scores of your favorite teams, but they showed the ability to expand the widget in order to view a video highlight of the team playing. At the most basic of functionality, being able to update the info from your app within the widget without having to have the native app open (like push notifications except the info gets pushed to the widget). Am I the only one wanting these features? Is it too much to ask?
Ebay Widget for iOS 8 @ the 1:30:19 mark
ESPN Widget for iOS 10 @ the 54:40 mark