No doubt the stubble is designed to appeal to the younger females who are setting up households, not seasoned housewives with machines that are 20+ years old.
On line articles about the new look also point out that Maytag no longer makes any reference to the dependability that triggered the original lonely Maytag Man campaign all those years ago. Now he's just pushing product, tagging it with, "What's inside matters."
Say what you will about him not being a corn-fed boy from Newton, but if I opened up my fridge and found him inside, I'd quickly take appropriate steps to warm him up.