[Joeri]

I get a sense the ribbon design is a bit aspirational, with emphasis on the things they think you should use instead of what is actually used. For example, I’m sure they feel you should be using styles instead of fonts, and so the styles control takes up a lot more real estate than the font chooser.

[WorldMaker]

Some of the Ribbon Designs are aspirational, but also some of the Ribbon Designs are simply telemetry-based, with an emphasis on the things users do most. I'm rarely surprised how many people complaining that the things they use most aren't well emphasized are also among the first to disable telemetry.

The intersection of the aspirational and telemetry-based approaches is something of the "Office 20% Rule". The long standing aphorism is that everybody only uses about 20% of the features of a given Office application, but that everybody's 20% is different. That "Rule" is exactly why the Ribbon will never be "perfect" in what it emphasizes, it can only aspire to try its best given the goals it has (aspirations) and the data available (telemetry).

[oblio]

Well, you should be using styles. It's just that most people like micromanaging document looks and can't be bothered to create new styles.