[hyko]

Modern software is doing orders of magnitude more than the software of the past. The feature set of a word processor in 1980 is a rounding error compared to the 2020 word processor’s print dialog.

The OP’s viewpoint is akin to claiming that aviation has not advanced beyond Kitty Hawk because modern aircraft are simply wasting fuel when they take to the skies. It doesn’t take into account the huge differences in the modern computing environment.

The computers of the recent past weren’t even powerful enough to encrypt a modern TLS session. Does that mean using all that power to encrypt the session today is “bloat”? Of course not. One person’s bloat is another person’s feature. Note that sometimes that feature is that the software can actually exist and be maintained on your preferred platform.

If you think about it, it would be an utterly bleak future if we were just running the exact same software stack on faster and faster hardware. That would represent stagnation, not progress.

[TheOtherHobbes]

I think you'd be surprised how few extra features Word in Office 365 has compared to WordStar 2000 considering the forty year gap. And also how poorly designed, inelegant, and - yes - pointlessly bloated Word feels in comparison.

The biggest differences are screen size - full document vs a few lines of text - and support for colours and outlining. Also, PDFs, which weren't a thing in the early 80s.

But the core features in WS2000 are a lot more than a "rounding error" compared to Word.