There is no debate between skeuomorphism and flat design. There are people who think that there should be a debate and thus spend 5 pages spewing personal opinion, but in the world of business and making products there is no debate.
There is nothing wrong with either and both can be over done. The reality is you have to meet somewhere in the middle, and most importantly, you have to do user testing for your specific application. Reading every blog post ever written about skeuomorphism vs flat design isn't going to help you build a more usable product, or a product that sells for that matter.
And for god's sake there's no such thing as "visual realism". The Internet and mobile phone apps are "real". This is what skeuomorphism is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorphism . Anytime anyone feels compelled to define it, don't. Just link to the wikipedia page.
I think it's a great first picture for the article as it shows the concept existed before and has a meaning expanded past Internet related technologies.
You don't just design for a medium, you design for a culture. If you don't understand the cultural context of the design elements and terms you're using it's going to show in you work.
There is nothing wrong with either and both can be over done. The reality is you have to meet somewhere in the middle, and most importantly, you have to do user testing for your specific application. Reading every blog post ever written about skeuomorphism vs flat design isn't going to help you build a more usable product, or a product that sells for that matter.
And for god's sake there's no such thing as "visual realism". The Internet and mobile phone apps are "real". This is what skeuomorphism is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorphism . Anytime anyone feels compelled to define it, don't. Just link to the wikipedia page.
TLDR: Blowhards and drama drama drama.