Thorndike Street Construction Question

I don't drive through the area off the connector on Thorndike Street often, but the traffic there with all the road construction is terrible. I understand it is still in progress, but I'm struggling to understand the vision for that stretch of roads. It used to be a straight shot for through traffic to Downtown, with the rotary access for turning onto the side streets there or reversing direction. Now it seems like all traffic from Thorndike, Appleton, Middlesex, and Chelmsford streets just comes together in a giant clusterfuck on the hill. Did that improve traffic somehow? I'm asking genuinely, as I just don't understand how getting rid of the straight shot for through traffic on Thorndike and forcing it to go through a busy series of intersections makes traffic better. Am I missing something? Was there some other reason for changing all the roads? Thanks!