I think a lot of it had to do more with business requirements than art or science. The business folks stroll in and make these generic one-click deploy type things to get sites up and running quickly, at the expense of being vetted by good artists and scientists.

A good analogy I think is any person using MS publisher to create a book layout. Sure it can be done quickly because the software does the thinking; but should it? Good books have skilled typographers designing the proportions of the pages relative to text block, the fonts, et cetera. The end result is a book that one scarcely notices but feels very pleasant to hold and experience.

We need websites that are subservient to their content; sites we scarcely notice but thoroughly enjoy.

EDIT: one last point: I think part of the problem is also that browsers have an identity issue. E.G. they started as a static publishing platform, but now they are a full blown operating system with web assembly etc. As we know, anything that does too many things is inherently complex, and hence “bloated.”