Why did Apple dumb down reminders in Mountain Lion iCal app?

I'd been running Leopard for a few years and was perfectly happy with it's functionality. Then I bought a new Mac and it came with Mountain Lion. iCal reminders pop up on the desktop and offer only two options to address them: snooze, close. Before I could select edit to customize continued reminders for any calendar item. So, dealing with calendar alerts is now just annoying. These kinds of "improvements" do not reflect well on the development management of their software products. And it does not make me a happier Apple customer.