The "canon" answer is that LCARS in addition to being extremely task-specific is alleged to be extremely user-specific and things are where a specific user expe

The "canon" answer is that LCARS in addition to being extremely task-specific is alleged to be extremely user-specific and things are where a specific user expects them to be, laid out as that user expects to need them and different users would see very different layouts even for some of the same stations. (That implication is that they are extremely user-customized dashboards, so the design pattern resembling what today we call "dashboards" makes quite a bit of sense.) Of course, given the technology at the time TNG was made, showing a lot of different user-specific LCARS panels was nearly impossible, which is why it is "alleged" more than canon fact in the TV shows.