I do not see anything particularly ugly in provided screenshots. And many "modern" utterly unergonomic applications with lots of wasted whitespace, low contrast

I do not see anything particularly ugly in provided screenshots. And many "modern" utterly unergonomic applications with lots of wasted whitespace, low contrast invisible text and "clickable" elements that look the same as the rest are pure abomination. But I guess it can be a generational difference. There are rather pleasant exceptions of course.