TL;DR: One design is better than another because the photo "looks better" to the modern eye. I guess form doesn't follow function in this case. The author the

TL;DR: One design is better than another because the photo "looks better" to the modern eye. I guess form doesn't follow function in this case. The author then generalizes to language design with no supporting evidence, and omits various counter-examples (Visual Basic, JavaScript, PHP) that don't support his thesis.