[TwoBit]

I'm convinced that the reason for the constant game of GUI musical chairs - of which Microsoft is the most guilty - is due to developers attempting to justify their employment.

[Legogris]

My experience has been the opposite - developers being resistant to frontend changes, which tend to get pushed through by UI/UX people (which is their job), or in more broken organizations, opinionated managers or executives.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

Software production busy work! New code, new UI, new already-out-of-date documentation.

Drives user engagement too: people spend longer in your app (working out how the fuck to use it, again!).

[fit2rule]

You're right that developers do this, but in this case I would say its because the designers have to justify their existence. as a class of developer.

An interface which lasts generations because its good is not the same, necessarily, as this years hot new ideology among the design elite.

[noizejoy]

The IT industry benefits from fashionable UIs (dark or bright, angular or rounded, 2D or 3D, etc.) and architectures (server centric, client centric, etc.) quite similarly to the fashion industry benefiting from rising and falling hemlines and wide vs skinny ties.

If you live long enough, you see cycles repeat.

[pjmlp]

Cycles are quite common in IT fashion industry, Microsoft isn't the only one playing the game, others are much worse.

Try to compare the Android best practices across all IOs since Android exists.