Let me preface this by clarifying that I don’t claim to have the one and only right explanation that everyone should accept, I’d just like to point out that this theory also exists: https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/a/43799

If you are not afraid to experiment with some more advanced tools, AOSPMods has options to set the number of quick settings rows and columns, which worked well for me. (I was initially annoyed by this change as well, but I eventually got used to it.)