I don't think its intended as outright superiority, I think its a reaction to it. CSS3 came out and suddenly everywhere everything is rounded corners, gradient

I don't think its intended as outright superiority, I think its a reaction to it. CSS3 came out and suddenly everywhere everything is rounded corners, gradient colors and shadowed text. It was cool and useful in places, but with the popularization of Bootstrap the internet feels flooded with the concepts. And it did feel like it was pushed into a lot of designs where it wasn't a good fit. I suspect many people dislike those design choices and are happy to see a counter-push for 'simple' design - flat colors, no gradients, etc.