[nartho]

Most people who are working in tech or who are tech literate want a UI that's readable and easy to use, with minimal fluff because they use it extensively

Most people who don't really care about tech that much don't like UI changes like you said because it means relearning what they know

The ones who love flashy new UIs are the tech enthusiast, the ones who love tech but use them on a surface level only, they are also the ones who will buy new, unproven tech and care little about privacy issues or open source. My guess is it makes a lot of sense for big tech groups to target them instead of the grey beards who won't be convinced anyway, right as they may be.