[Bobblehead]

But I think that the "old" theme was something they played on specifically to dismiss.

Spoiler!

The whole trial of M was and explanation of the movie. The idea of the spy is outdated, it is a transparent world where almost everything is available from your desk. But M argued that the brighter the light, the darker the shadows. The fact is there are as many or more reasons to still have a spy service, specifically because there are so many more "shadows" where enemies can work.
The new Q was the evidence of that - the super computer brain who can do more in his pyjamas before his morning tea than Bond could do, got himself hacked.

It took Bond going somewhere off the grid, going back to his roots literally and figuratively to finally defeat the bad guy (with the knife).

The whole "sometimes the old ways are the best ways" was pretty much the theme of the entire movie, and it sets up the relevance of the Bond franchise in an increasingly electronic world.

So old is brought up and, in the end, shown that it doesn't need to be a bad thing.