I thought they got rid of Google chat and made it only for their paid plans or whatever, I remember uninstalling it and switching to signal when they killed it.
Also why is the update to make it look the same it did before
Well, they did kill hangouts. They never said they were going to kill it and also leave their users without an easy migration path. If anything this is better. They reduced redundant apps. Hangouts did somethings better though