I don't buy the first one about apparent usability. The claim that better aesthetics are perceived as better usability is based on a 1995 study by Kurosu and K

I don't buy the first one about apparent usability. The claim that better aesthetics are perceived as better usability is based on a 1995 study by Kurosu and Kashimura. The study was done on 156 students of a Japanese design school and 96 students of a Japanese university psychology course. That's already an over 160% sample bias towards very likely extremely aesthetically-minded people, not to mention that the Japanese have an ancient culture of aesthetics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aesthetics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aesthetics) which in itself renders the study and its conclusions culturally irrelevant to global audiences.