It's clear Google has undertaken a massive task on defining a cohesive image and set of guidelines for the design of their products. In that sense it's probably

It's clear Google has undertaken a massive task on defining a cohesive image and set of guidelines for the design of their products. In that sense it's probably better to have a flawed plan than no plan at all. However I would not be so fast on calling Material good design. I might be alone on this but there's something on material design that irks me. I find it objectively pretty: colors, typography, everything with a defining image, related or just a fancy cartoon. That being said, every time I am faced with this kind of UI, my brain disconnects, I feel bored and unproductive, play a bit with the buttons never to touch it again. I do not need smiley faces and happy tones to keep me hooked to something. I just want a productive interface that gets my job done. It is quite similar to these old children books we used to have with levers and unfolding parts inside the pages to discover more (let's say, the human body and the internal organs, or a lever that makes a bird wiggle). These were fun, sure, but a raw book with no illustrations at all ends up being the most efficient method to transfer information. One day Google will have to figure out that their userbase are no longer kids amused by a square, a circle and a triangle.