New Google Groups format

I use Google Groups to read RAS. I know there are other ways to reach it, but this has been my preferred method. I don't want to install new software or to have group messages appear within my email.

Now Google has forced upon me their new, dumbed down, look and feel of Groups. It's been in "beta" for months, I've tried it out and sent them my feedback but of course they ignored what I told them. Now, for example, I can no longer see how many NEW messages there are in a thread before I open it..

But the worst of it is: I can't reply privately to the author of a message. The "reply to author" entry appears in the 3-dot menu, but is grayed out, and if I hover over it it says I am not authorized to send messages. But I could do that in the old format, and I can now post messages to the whole group. Blech. Does anybody know of a workaround?