I did not realized that aesthetic was not correlated with function. Probably a clear visual understanding to the actual value of something is meaningless, I suppose.
I think that question is in itself a fundamental part of UX design and research. Designs are better assessed with a context - so design that is bland for one group could be read as being elegantly minimal by another, and the opposite.
A big part of UX research is figuring out the user base and making designs conducive for your target.
That is arguable, at best it is functional enough so that people can use it, at worst it is not functional for squat and it is mostly dominant because of the incubator attached to it.
In fact I wonder the rate of drop vs new user retention as it is hard to follow a thread, there is no clarity in the headline differentiations... it is really a tough argument to say that it lacks nothing and / or is a good example of function over design...
