Personally I think it was a mistake and removed well known recognisable brands, in particular the Red Kite, and replaced them with a different paint job for no real reason and no real change either bar sticking an X on some routes.

It's just an upgraded version of Arriva MAX / Sapphire and Stagecoach Gold really and they've done the right thing and got shot of them all and have just made the standard livery pretty much the same spec now. Arriva MAX by the end was (is - since half of it still exists) a mess aswell but at least everything on there got some form of refurb so there was actually a change; there's literally Merc's and the B5's running around in outdated interior with the new interior being on routes such as the 97 and then there's routes like the X21 which had a paint job and nothing else changed. Not to mention there's no spares for them so when one breaks you're left with a 55 plate unrefurbished Omnidekka for 2 hours in some cases. Imagine ringing a taxi and being promised a luxury car and a 55 plate Skoda Octavia turned up, you wouldn't be happy.

Not to mention it doesn't make sense when they've got individual brands. It made sense at Arriva and Stagecoach (we didn't get gold) as it was totally different whereas with GNE it isn't clear and it's all just a confused mess.

You missed the X84/X85 aswell btw.