[alxlaz]

Having worked with designers since back when Visual Studio .NET 2002 was pretty fresh, I think this is a very over-simplified assessment and I don't think it's fair.

There are definitely cargo cult designers, just like there are cargo cult programmers out there. But I don't think that's true of most designers, just like I don't think it's true of most programmers.

Chasing the latest trend isn't always a decision you make by yourself, and isn't always a decision you can oppose on your own terms.

Virtually every designer who was in the industry ten years ago or so can come up with a good design that's 100% against the latest trends -- contrasting, non-flat, compact, whatever.

But it'll get shot down within minutes in any product design meeting. Sometimes by people who have zero design experience, so they can't judge a design except by how well it conforms to the latest trends. Sometimes by people who lack the "political" capital to argue for an original design with their bosses, too. There are a lot of factors here, and most of the time the people who do the designs have the least amount of influence.