I am fairly sure
I have navigated trees with a + and - to collapse structures even in Linux apps. This is not "new", he had clearly got past the real changes i.e. having to start double clicking etc.
I blame the angry user most, followed by weak newt "boss" should should have had the balls to deal with it himself, and apart from being a bit snarky newt comes of relatively free of trouble.
Note to boss, significant user experience changes can be hard for non-techies - printed FAQ in plastic film is cheap to produce and can be left on desk out of hours for the really scary uses...