[NetMageSCW]

> The whole skeuomorphic trend starting in the mid-90s was similarly awful for the same reason. First, it was often hard to tell what was a control and what was just decoration. Second, it often took trial and error to figure out what was what.

I strongly disagree - do you often find it hard to figure out where the light switch is when you enter a room? Terrible applications are terrible regardless of whether they are modern or old, whether skeuomorphic or purely functional. But well written applications tend to have more affordance when skeuomorphic because people already know a lot about real world controls and their function.