[bsimpson]

When Matias was in charge of Material, he said the purpose of design guidance isn't to raise the peaks but to fill the valleys. An expert can come up with something that's more appealing/usable than slinging the components together, but someone without that expertise should be able to make something pretty compelling by following the practices set out by people who had it.

[caseyy]

That's a good point. And it's a noble effort by the Google Design team. Unfortunately good will and good efforts are sometimes abused.

[ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7]

It definitely has influenced how people build applications, and has improved the common language people use to refer to many patterns.

[bsimpson]

> became associated with the worst of the worst

Material 2 may have felt corporate and boring, but I disagree with this accusation.

Before Material, indie apps on Android were big grey buttons and unpadded text on a black background. Not everything that tries to use Material does a good job, but the starting point is better now than it used to be.