On their defense all you wrote about could be seen as antiquated: - header/footer: good modern UX always has action and effect close together, so Ideally you'd

On their defense all you wrote about could be seen as antiquated: - header/footer: good modern UX always has action and effect close together, so Ideally you'd just click that area, not fiddle with nested menues. - files: it's cloud time, look at files on IOs. It either lives an the app or goes through "share". And while I personally hate it it's actually a fair thing to have it that way. It's just professional tools that have to be complex because they are more general and powerful. Consumer apps don't have to be any more and that makes them diverge from the pro tools further than ever. We were just early enough to be forced to learn complex and relatively low-level interaction with our computers. That's great for understanding and using professional tools, but I'd argue it's not necessary any more to get by digitally. And even with the professional tools they are often just a bit behind in UX. I think drawing a parallel to low-level programming languages makes sense. If you grew up with a lower level you'll have learned a ton of advanced stuff, but it doesn't make sense to force CS students to still be fluent in assembly(?) or whatever.