Notifications were always grouped by app. It was just easier to see that there were multiple notifications, because there were multiple lines. But, if you didn't tap the expansion arrow just right, you lost all but the first notification. Now, it's easier to ungroup them just by tapping (or swiping), but harder for some people to determine multiples because they don't see the circled count to the right of the text in the bubble). However, just tapping the bubble to read even the first notification will make it evident that there are more because they will immediately separate.
No matter what they do with the notifications, they are never going to please everyone. If they separate every notification into individual notifications, it will annoy those of us who don't need or don't like the clutter. Of course, a simple setting control of group or ungroup notifications would go a long way in giving choice. But, this is also why Notistar exists and people who want to see their notifications laid out individually, or only want to see their important notifications can use Notistar. Of course the disadvantage to Notistar is you still can't see the entire text of longer notifications and tapping the notification from within Notistar will only take you to the app the notification is from, not the individual message. However, the notifications are all separated and in the order they were received and, as I said, one can choose to see only the notifications from the apps they consider important or containing certain keywords (which I assume can be a contact name). One can even choose to show the notifications on the lock screen, so they know if it's worth unlocking their phone (they are hidden until you tap the icon to view them).
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