Originally Posted by
Balakin
I think your second comment answers the first one (at least partially)
Morrison's approach was a new start and a new aesthetic that could help bringing the team over to the 21st century.
He started working on the title after the first X-men movie and thought that the comics needed to catch up with the movies, needed to offer something for the readers who would jump in after coming out of the cinema.
So he proposed an upgrade on the costumes, less spandex and more cool leather jackets, late 90s, early 2000s rave and cyberpunk influences (a'la matrix, which he has an everlasting grudge against).
And he wanted to distance himself from the convoluted continuity of the previous decades and focus more on the school and the mutant aspect of the characters instead of the super heroics.
He looked at whatever the X-men was doing in the last two and a half decades and asked what if I put the emphasis on the unexplored aspects.
Now if you are an X-men fanatic, following the team and various books in the past, I can see why you would think Morrison went against everything you knew and loved.
I grew up on Claremont's run but I always much prefer self contained, interesting takes but I completely understand why fans of the previous era would dislike it.
But for new fans, or tired old ones, this was a fresh and exciting take that felt more grounded at of the zeitgeist.