Why change the product dimensions options….?

It was “broke” in that the volume of support tickets it generated wondering why the height/width was not actually used was a big problem. You can read more in https://woocommerce.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/wc-3-3-image-size-improvements/ if you’re interested.

That change is separate from the decision to move to customizer. Using the customizer means you can see how the changes effect your store in real time. I don’t see anything wrong with that.

This won’t be reverted, only enhanced based on feedback going forward.

I totally agree with the op, a terrible change and has caused unnecessary issues

@mikejolley

OK, so i how would i specify the exact width and height of a product image that i want displayed on the category pages?

Not everybody understands how to use Aspect Ratios.

Only the width is relevant. Height is determined from the width if you want uniform thumbnails, where 1:1 is square. Regardless, CSS controls the final image size displayed. Read the post.

We also have a doc https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/woocommerce-customizer/