Although the Mauser grips are indeed much thicker than the original P08 grips, there was a very good reason to do so.
Normal grips will shrink and develop some lateral play when mounted on the gun. Also, the old style grips are prone to damage, developing tears and chips (the 'million dollar chip') around the edges. The Mauser engineers sought for a method whereby the wooden grips could be attached to the grips in a more secure and durable way.
The first attempt used small brass pins, inset in the grip edges, so they would catch behind the frame edges. The drawback of this construction was that there had to be enough material along the edges in order to get a decent working surface. This created the rather thick grips.
Their second attempt worked better and provided smoother grips, more along the line of the old grip shape. They introduced a small metal spiked pin in the middle of the frame. The grips, when pushed (or 'impaled') onto this little spike would be unable to move and would not need the additional wood around the edges.
So I wouldn't say the Mauser engineers 'lost the art'. They just tried different methods to improve on a rather poor original design.
Personally, I would have ditched the wooden grips and switched to plastic, though. In my opinion, on a technical point of view, the best luger grips ever are still the East German VoPo grips. Light, strong, efficient, comfortable and designed in such a way that there is enough free space between the grips and the frame/magazine follower.
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