Progress doesn't just mean "moving toward the future". It is not "progressive" to remove diversity and agency in favor of a strict sociocultural contract. This

Progress doesn't just mean "moving toward the future". It is not "progressive" to remove diversity and agency in favor of a strict sociocultural contract. This is rather a perfect example of conservatism: refusing to extend beyond comfort zone boundaries because of a strong sense of risk avoidance, for fear of missing out on market opportunity. This conservatism has always existed but has a much broader reach in the era of the global community, and expresses itself in paradoxically new and exciting ways as it froths through the reactors of specific cultures. I believe "regressive" is used in the sense that the aesthetics are "regressing toward a mean", which is true almost by definition, assuming you believe the postulates in the article.