[ryantbrown]

The subjectivity of design has always baffled me. I looked at the example and immediately thought "wow, the one on the right looks so much better". I truly don't understand how the one on the left could be preferred.

It does seem like you're arguing against the "usability", which I think is a stretch. The hover state provides interactivity, the right has far less going on (minimal), the drop shadow does nothing either way and more compact does not mean more functional, I would argue the exact opposite actually.