Hey, thanks for the feedback. You’ve run into a recent change in the model picker layout. At the top level it now shows Effort and Options, and the model list moved into a submenu. This isn’t something in your settings, this is how the new picker looks.
One thing that might help a bit: type-to-search still works inside the model submenu. Open the model list and start typing the model name. The extra hover step is still there though, I get that it’s slower for quick switching than before.
I’ve passed this to the team as feedback on the new layout. The same request already came up in a couple other threads: New model picker makes it harder to switch models quickly and Bug Report — the model dropdown is showing the wrong list (High / Low / Medium) instead of the models. I don’t have an ETA or rollback plan yet, but I’ll post here if there’s an update.
On the separate point about the picker resetting to Grok 4.5 in every new chat (post by @iHal9000), that’s different behavior. If it’s reliably reproducible, it’s better to start a separate thread for it so it doesn’t get mixed with layout feedback.