Looks like a lot of people are still conflating skeuomorphism with leather stitching and felt textures, so let's zoom out a bit. Skeuomorphism should have evolved as the real-world objects from back then still exist today. We should be enjoying clean and modern evolved takes on the connection between real life and technology.
The worst thing that the industry decided was that software interfaces should be relative to each other, a shared design language that has no relation to real world objects or movement, but this never actually happened. Instead, most developers did their own thing with their own design languages, and would often copy some of the laziest takes from their competition, to stay competitive, which is largely where we are at today.
An OS or app doesn't have to be empty and stark with minimal options in order for it to be elegant with a beautiful design and also easy to use. When the user can't distinguish where (some) depthless windows and menus fall, is blinded by a sea of white, and has to find buttons and menus, the experience isn't 'easier'. And when you're looking for said buttons, tabs, menus, sliders and so on, or squinting your eyes to make out text with massive blur behind it, or having to click more buttons, often a tiny little 'x', the OS is not only in your way, but it's hiding what you need in order to use it properly, all in an effort to make the application or OS look and feel 'easy to use' while accomplishing the complete opposite while actually using it.
Has anyone ever turned on a brand new Mac and was amazed at what Apple thinks what an out of box experience should be for a new Mac user? Where are the files? Where's the hard disk? Where are the items in Spotlight stored? Export? Where is Save As? What's the difference? Why can't I tap to click? Why are Finder windows so small? Why are files not in any order in Finder windows? And I can go on and on with endless head-scratchers here.
These are things most of us change without even thinking about it, and newer users do not assume that they're using their iPhone when they turn their new Macs on, and no matter how hard Apple tries, these two experiences will never be the same, but they insist on their 'you don't need to know where everything is' and 'we think you'll love the way we use the OS' mentality, which forces users to dig through System Settings and various preferences to make their new Macs usable, especially if they're coming over from Windows. Because it's a Mac, not an iPhone. The ecosystem can remain super-tight with shared apps, syncing and so on, but it should end there and the GUI/UX should be relative to (and geared toward) the device it's on.
It also looks like many have fell for the myth that Apple is going on about how Tahoe and the iOS variants gets the OS 'out of the way' when in reality, OS 26 has done the complete opposite, and all I keep doing is trying to get around the superfluous and gratuitous 'features' that they baked in to showcase an almost non-existent 'glass' look, all while others fear that leather stitching and notepad lines may make a return.
Oh, the irony of it all.
Minimalist and flat GUI/UX design, if not done properly, and many are not (in my view), makes for a more difficult, boring, cold, and frustrating user experience, and Apple made a lot of changes so that they can showcase their 'Liquid Glass' design, which ironically, is almost no where to be found. In Dark Mode, there is no glass, just GUI elements that try to mimic it, which, along with the awful and overly rounded corners just makes the interface look unattractive, a bit amateurish, and worse than Sequoia in many areas of the OS.
When an OS has minimal on-screen components, lacks shadowing, depth, textures and obvious, intuitive controls, and when there large empty spaces with minimal interface elements, the user will spend more time looking for what they need in order to start working (or playing), versus intuitively just doing it. Same for icons, which are now all the same shape, and often just glyphs on a tile, making the user have to hone in closer to pic the app they want to open, versus easily spotting it out via a well designed, naturally shaped icon, which again, totally defeats the purpose and another example of an OS getting in the user's way.
Having said that, Apple's worst OS is better than Window's best OS in my view, but I expect more from the company that revolutionized the GUI and UX, but somehow lost their way. 3rd party developers shouldn't be more talented than Apple's own dev teams. When the iPhone brought the masses to Apple, and ultimately turned them into the behemoth that they are today, you can see why they now cater to this consumer-base, and prioritizing profit margins. Apple's 'It just works' reputation is starting to erode, but they refuse to dig into their very deep pockets to build development teams that can actually put out polished, intuitive products, as they used to.
