You'd have to be pretty shallow to think that aesthetics are the be-all and end-all of improving peoples lives (and particularly in the case of government websites where they're just a tool; people just use them as a means to an end).
Usability should be the most important factor of a government website. If it can be pretty and usable, then that's a bonus.
To people like me and you it means "stupid things that prevent me from doing what I want. Things that are only there because someone thinks they look nice"
To good designers it means "very carefully made choices that make information easier to find; that make websites easier to use; and that have the added benefit of making things less ugly."
I say that a book is often a great example of minimal design. Designers point out that books have hundreds of years of cumulative design - the fonts have been iterated; the layout and the margins and the indents and everything has all had decades of iteration.
I get the feeling that you and parent both agree and are now talking past each other.
This was why I switched to using the terms "aesthetics" and "usability" to make the distinction between the different interpretations of "design" (In fact in the very post you replied to, I hadn't used the term "design" once).
Since The other guy counter-argued using those same terms so I can only assume that our opinions differ.
I didn't say that, but pretty is better than ugly in almost every situation, that was the point. Good-looking and usable is better than ugly and usable.
Websites should maximize user experience, i.e. how pleasantly the user feels. Aesthetics and usability contribute to that.
Recreational sites with reference tools. If we were talking about sites like Twitter, then aesthetics are obviously very important. However for productivity tools such as government websites, then usability is far more important as you're not after casual surfers and trying to generate more traffic from them, you're literally just trying to get people to the information they want in the most direct and painless way possible.
Usability should be the most important factor of a government website. If it can be pretty and usable, then that's a bonus.