As far as I'm concerned UI mods, custom launchers, etc; were never neccesary. My first android ran cupcake & I had no problem finding a good alternative launcher on the play store. It was one of the first apps I installed & still is Every time I've gotten a new phone. I don't want anything preinstalled on my phone that isn't a core part of android itself. That kind of bloat does nothing but take away valuable space for apps I actually use. Google owns some of the blame, because they actually made the promise that there would be zero bloat on android,& presented that as a selling point, but they never even attempted to follow through on that promise.