The very bottom of this is what it all comes down to.
It's really not a whole hell of a lot more convoluted than the "old" system. Just different. And I see the purpose of getting kids to "understand why" the math works. And I understand that this should help them in the future with tougher math equations. Like I was saying, it's more of a 10 based system.
Really the two methods are doing the same thing. That's math for you. It all adds up the same in the end. The only difference is it's treating tens as tens (60 + 20) instead of as ones (6+2).
It's different than what we're used to, but I don't think necessarily better or worse. Just different. But if it helps kids to better understand what they're doing and why they're doing it, then I guess it is better.
I think partially this is coming out of the fact that in today's day in age, we all have calculators on us at all times in the form of cell phones. If you need to know what 62+26 is you can type it in and instantly get the results. But the real need is to better understand
why 62+26= 88 in preparation for more complex math down the line.