I agree with you about false machismo. I'm trying not to say that hard-to-use tools are essentially good. I am saying that some essentially good tools are not v

I agree with you about false machismo. I'm trying not to say that hard-to-use tools are essentially good. I am saying that some essentially good tools are not very new-user-friendly, and that worrying excessively about the new-user experience has been detrimental overall. One reason for that is the "new user experience" for a more powerful system will imply learning some things that are not directly relevant to whatever problem you are trying to solve. Excel worksheets, layers in Illustrator, "command mode" in vi and Blender, etc., are more like gas/brake pedals than they are like "do you want directions to this destination?" I don't see how you can avoid thrusting some learning on new users of a powerful system. Powerful systems are going to have powerful metaphors that are probably not totally intuitive at first. You can do more stuff with Illustrator than Omnigraffle. It's a more powerful tool. That brings with it a longer or steeper learning curve. But, if you just want to make a few charts, Omnigraffle is easier to use. I do feel that, over time, we have become very gun-shy about making complex applications that have richer models like this though, preferring to make applications with simpler UX that aim directly at smaller problems. And I think this is partly because UX is more straightforward for smaller problems.