Better discoverability was one of the primary intentions. Shame it led to less usability for everyone else (ie all non-beginners), with an arbitrary mix of text

Better discoverability was one of the primary intentions. Shame it led to less usability for everyone else (ie all non-beginners), with an arbitrary mix of text, text+icons and mystery find out only on rollover icons. There was much to be said for hierarchical menus, now it's partially guesswork to even decide which tab the required choice is on. Anecdotal for sure, but the old interface seemed to be missed most by the very users that the ribbon was intended for - those needing to discover, rather than already knowing, which feature to use. There was a lot more piracy of Office 2003 after 2007 came out.