It's a matter of taste, obviously. But the big difference between a machine shop in Indiana and a French fashion house is that the people running the fashion bu

It's a matter of taste, obviously. But the big difference between a machine shop in Indiana and a French fashion house is that the people running the fashion business need to have an eye for style, or their business would fail. I have a lot of respect for machinists, but you wouldn't expect the stereotypical guy you are describing to know the difference between Arial and Helvetica. Whereas practically every typographer is a perfectionist to whom that difference means a lot. I mean, this exactly parallels the difference between simple clothes that cost nothing, and a high-end fashion version of those clothes. The difference in cut and materials is subtle but you can be sure the designer takes it seriously (and is not imagining it). You can't say that it's a simple case of "the emperor's new clothes" and expect to be taken seriously in the design business. These sans serifs might be boring, but they don't lack typographic nuance.