I hate the damage that Apple seems to have done in this regard. I also hate it when apps hide features because “they’re for power users and regular users won’t understand them”.
Sure, there’s a difference between UX being so bad that it’s frustrating to use and “we need to simplify things because we don’t want to scare the users”.
Lemmy UI has its problems to solve and features to add, but it’s not bad, even on mobile. I’ve been using it extensively and it does fine all things considered.
Anyways, at this point I believe there’s even a benefit to making a UI a bit ugly and scary, so you end up with a higher quality of users instead of quantity, as cold as it might sound.
You’ll notice that it’s really only the big tech that lean towards simplification. Small indie devs want to cram in as many features as they can. If an indie project is labeled as “simple”, then a) it’s often already more feature-rich than the big names, b) only at the beginning of development, or c) if it’s designed to be simple, you have a lot of alternative options (see Android launchers).
The big tech doesn’t want you to think. They don’t want you to have options. They want you to consume.
If you’re missing something, they want you to buy their solution: the next generation product, the accessory, or addon, the microtransaction, the subscription.
If you start wondering why your brand new device or operating system is slower than the stuff 1 or 5 or 10 generations before, it’s probably because of all the tracking and advertising systems in the background. But you’re not supposed to think about that. You’re only meant to click at the shiny buttons and consume the app.
Speaking of shiny buttons, I kinda believe the simplification and corporatification of design elements such as icons and logos is part of this. If someone makes a bunch of nice elaborate 3D icons… Well that’s art. Art makes you feel and think. The less art is around you, and the more it’s replaced by lifeless lines and the simplest of design elements, the more likely you are to just follow the leader and behave. Pretty much the idea of brutalism, frankly.
Man, as someone who grew up near a whole bunch of brutalist architecture, there comparison to lifeless corporate art is spot on.