The current access methods for getting statement values for display in wikitext (Lua: mw.wikibase.entity:formatPropertyValues, wikitext: {{#property:…}}) are being heavily used and the output formats are being exploited in various places. For example many consumers assume that external ids are returned as plain strings, not as linked wikitext.
In order to not break with existing consumers, we decided to implement new functions that will output the format which is best for human consumption.