And it’s in line with what I said was the case. The Iowa DOT’s goal in the stripped-down and genericized signs at exits is to reduce the “pieces of information” offered to the driver.
The old sign (seen above) has eight discrete pieces of information: Knoxville is ahead, Knoxville is 2 miles away, etc. The replacement sign, which points only to Indianola and Oskaloosa with no numbers, has two discrete pieces.