the data points to other companies/products/projects doing it, and they seem to have customers, get funding, and still be in business. I don't even need to invoke the cynicism of "resume-driven-development" to get to that point, and I think that's probably as deep as some people go when justifying their design direction.

Well, NHS seems to have found that a text link (with an icon) is better than a button.

> We also found arrow icons highlight ‘action’ links for users wanting to find help. They're noticeable but, unlike buttons, users actually read the link.

I think it just depends, some things we think are UI affordances aren't, I'm not sure it's just minimalism vs not. Just that you gotta test.