[cesarb]

> the point we started getting high-DPI displays everywhere was about the same time we decided to throw away rich icons and detail in UIs in favour of abstract line art and white-on-white windows.

I might have an alternative explanation.

I often think about something I saw, a long time ago, on one of those print magazines about house decoration, which also featured sample house blueprints. That particular issue had a blueprint for a house which would be built on a terrain which already had a large boulder. Instead of removing the boulder, the house was built around it; it became part of the house, and guided its layout.

In the same way, the restrictions we had back then (lower display resolutions, reduced color palette, pointing device optional) helped guide the UI design. Once these restrictions were lifted, we lost that guidance.