The trend to value aesthetics over all else (particularly functionality) is very unfortunate and leads to the current crop of software that is mostly useless fo

The trend to value aesthetics over all else (particularly functionality) is very unfortunate and leads to the current crop of software that is mostly useless for anything other than the very linear basic use case of a beginner. I get to sit in many user testing sessions and while well-intentioned, the environment of observing someone who has never seen the system before do a few very basic tasks naturally selects for a design that optimizes for that use case. But in real life use, nobody gets to have less than an hour of experience with the system for more than one hour of their life. But now every subsequent hour spent using the system is hobbled by the limitations of that first hour. Good thing for me that I mostly just still use emacs, mutt and zsh, or I'd go crazy. This infantilization of users can be seen in industries far removed from software even. Look at sailboats from the 70s and 80s, mostly designed for usability at sea. Visit a boat show today and new boats are optimized for the initial 20 minutes someone spends touring them at the show, making them mostly terrible for life at sea.