No, high dpi displays did not make everything tiny and then huge. They just forced Microsoft to finally put some effort into making their UI scalability work pr

No, high dpi displays did not make everything tiny and then huge. They just forced Microsoft to finally put some effort into making their UI scalability work properly. Displays with less than 100 dpi are still widespread, and today's software and web pages have far more padding and wasted space than they did 20 years ago. A 21" 4:3 CRT back then was at least as usable as a 27" 16:9 LCD today despite the newer displays having twice as many pixels. 17" displays in any aspect ratio are frustrating to the point of uselessness on today's desktops, but were fine in the '90s. The UI bloat is real whether you measure in pixels or inches, and very strongly correlated with the rise of touchscreens.