I agree with you wholeheartedly (as a fellow full-stack dev) but I think that much of what constitutes modern "design" places too much emphasis on expectations management and user feelings. There seem to be few that are truly concerned with usability metrics and too many concerned about aesthetics or optimizing for business objectives.

Sometimes the best user experience does not look the prettiest, and even more often does it fail to line up with business requirements. Both of those concerns need to be de-prioritized.