Class Pictures and my feelings on before & after class desk arrangement

For most the year the class desk setup has been in the rows you see in the pictures below. I felt for sixth graders this was an entrance into a more mature world. Rows of desks feel more grownup in comparison to groups of desks that often are found at the lower grade levels. The rows of desks offered individuality to the students because they were not having to share space with others. They had their desk that they could establish as their own with a creatively designed name tag and an organisation of their own accord on the inside of their desks. The rows of desks had their shortcomings: group work was cumbersome due to the arrangement, community building might have benefited slightly more with groups, and moving through the desks became an obstacle of sorts. Then one day, change came.
I came into the classroom last week and saw little poddlets of desks scattered about the room. My CT had grouped the desks. My initial reaction was, "Wow there is a lot of room." The space that was created for movement was amazing. From a teaching perspective, when I did my read-aloud, I was able to quickly move from group to group to hear what the students were discussing. This was very contradictory to the struggle of having to hurdle rows to get to student conversation. I also noticed an increase in management power. During my lesson I was able to quickly and quietly move to where some students were talking and place a, "please be quiet while I am teaching" hand on one of their desks. This would have been much more obvious of an issue to the rest of the class if I had to either say something out loud or run through the rows (which I wouldn't) to put the hand down on their desk. The negative that I noticed about this setup, so far, is that students are more likely to talk, or pass notes, or create distractions for a larger group of students easier.
I could go on and on about the benefits and negatives concerning both these setups, but I would love to hear your preference, opinion, or even suggestions. I will try and get a picture of the new arrangement. Also, what is your opinion on starting out with rows and then moving into groups, with this grade level?