How to revert to original swatches?

Google's Ai says the big change to the Swatches panel happened with V21, so before 22.2 which is the oldest Previous Version we can get via the CC app.

But you can get V17 from Jim's ProDesignTools site:

https://prodesigntools.com/adobe-cc-2017-direct-download-links.html

A lot of hassle, unfortunately, so I guess you'd export the panels to keep them safe on your drive, so you can use them going forward.  There's no danger in removing all of the current groups, as Append Default loads them back again.

BTW I don't disagree. I'm not a big fan of the new swatches.

There is another way once you get the old swatches.

Save them in a My Docs folder, and place a shortcut to the folder in:

C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2025\Presets\Color Swatches

I like to do this with presets but have not thought to include swatches.  I'll be putting that to rights after seeing your thread.

Open the various Swatch groups. For each, select the Swatches in that group (not he group itself), and drag them to the top of the panel.

You will have the now empty groups, which you can either keep or delete.