Seem that the author of the article is comparing information dense interfaces with those that aren't. Not really a fair comparison. Of course they look 'messie

Seem that the author of the article is comparing information dense interfaces with those that aren't. Not really a fair comparison. Of course they look 'messier', in as much as there's more on the screen. People use spreadsheets --yes, in 2016!--because they're the best way to see some types of data, even if the interface is horrid and outmoded.