Hi April,
Your question about which is better for visitors and printouts might as well be rhetorical - anybody, visitor or logged in member, who is looking at a profile is ONLY looking at the view page, so of course we want that to look the very best it can.
The problem is that all profiles on WikiTree are - and are destined to always be - works in progress, so it is also important that the editing page be easy to use because of our dedication to collaboration here.
When the inline sources (all the <ref> ... </ref> tags) contain long citations, often including URLs that have lots of parameters that are frequently written using entities and character callouts instead of just plain text, it severely impedes the ability to read the narrative easily.
This often leads to people who try to add more information to the narrative ending up accidentally fouling up the source citations or the narrative itself. Sometimes it also leads to people being so confused that they give up, or more likely in the case of newer members, being afraid to even try to make a contribution.
So .... even though the answer to your question is a no-brainer, there is a very solid case for needing editing capability to be easily accessible to all members. The result is that we may have to accept a trivial underachievement on the view page in order to provide a major improvement to the editing interface.
OK - aafter that long-winded argument in favor of the new system, I really don't think that old vs new is the issue you are concerned with. This new approach doesn't create the 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, etc. string, although it does exacerbate it a little, since every source will have at least 2 tags - the first where it is used in the narrative and the second where all the numbers only are listed just under the Sources heading. The decision of whether to use the full citation each time a source is footnoted (what you called "simple") or to use the empty tag (<ref name="something" /> for multiple footnotes using the same source (what you called "advanced") is not at all affected here. You can still do it either way.
Now, to complete the full circle you mentioned, I'll comment on the start of your answer ... I hope this isn't adding another side ... that would be putting the "hex" on your pentagon.