Progressive disclosure is an important principle in designing good UIs, but as you’re pointing out it’s often misused or used to excuse cuts and burying things

Progressive disclosure is an important principle in designing good UIs, but as you’re pointing out it’s often misused or used to excuse cuts and burying things for the sake of aesthetics. When applied correctly, all the term really means is thoughtful, research based surfacing of features, taking into account target audiences and the way features relate to each other. It’s why you don’t just dump all your features into the main window of your program, turning it into a Great Wall of Buttons. Thoughtfulness is increasingly uncommon though, UI design has more and more been treated as generic visual design instead.