I disagree. The old bar indicated that fight was coming to an end and you could follow how close your blocks were.
New bar is different and I think only shows final attack round, at least much shorter time than the previous. I don't know what it is, because BB does not tell anybody.
So the change is to the worse and mostly because BB made the change, BB has no idea what they have done and also BB refuses to let anybody else to know what the new feature is. So if you don't have a clue what you are doing, change it back.
This thread is not about showing enemy troops before attacking but I like the new way where those random pop ups don't block your playing and enemies are shown after the attack. You can check the enemies before sending the attacks.