I am not a marketing person, but I can appreciate the importance and value of good branding.
I read the entire piece in Medium. It was quite well written, but struck me as over-kill. An article covering the same topics, but about 25% as long, would have sufficed.
But, yes, as other people in this thread indicated, this is all about changing the packaging while the product stays the same. - - - And yes, in the past year, there have been a variety of enhancements implemented in the new releases.
However, it seems to me that the major challenge for Evernote management is how to make a significant enhancement to the product without making the product materially more complicated.
I also observe that most (maybe all) of the people commenting in this thread are very experienced and very sophisticated Evernote users. Those types of customers are harder to satisfy in any business, particularly when the supplier can't charge them a higher price. - - - Suppliers of products must ensure that their product capabilities match the needs of the masses real well - - - and, if I give Evernote management the benefit of the doubt, they decided now was the time to appeal to the masses by enhancing the brand.