Don't know what you've got till it's gone

from here and here (image source 1, 2, and 3)

Would you choose meaningful or meaningless? It appears that Google is opting for meaningless. While they argue that the people don't understand the precise meaning of the lock icon, at least it does have meaning and even an imprecise understanding can still be beneficial. The "tune" icon they intend as a replacement conveys no information whatsoever. Removing all meaning is a cynical solution to the problem of misunderstanding the meaning.

If you miss seeing whether your connection is secure you can find out about that by clicking on the "tune" icon, just as you could with the lock icon, and the "tune" icon is arguably is more obvious about the fact that you can click on it, but the fact is that even people who knew you could click on the lock icon didn't bother, so they aren't going to bother with the new one either.

And then there's the older generations who aren't as quick to adjust to changes, and who have been trained to look for the lock icon for years. They are going to be left scared and confused because the lock icon is going to be missing from their bank website, from Facebook, from their email provider, etc. Some of them are just going to throw up their hands in defeat and give up on the Internet - no, really, some do give up and you might too if the rug were pulled out from under you over and over again throughout the years. Imagine how confusing it would be if the interface for traffic lights changed every decade or so. Imagine the accidents that would ensue all because something we were trained on was taken away and replaced with something unfamiliar.