It’s ok if you have two eyes, two hands and/or a well lit room.

Apple TV remote is possibly the worst remote ever made.

This. I forever struggle to persuade my remote to do what I want it to. That touch-sensitive panel is a complete PIA, and just navigating across a rectangular array of icons is fraught with detours.

If I were paranoid, I'd say it was designed to force people to use the voice-recognition system, which gives better user data.

It really is. You can’t even wake the remote from sleep without sending a keypress to the TV. And the trackpad is difficult to use accurately. Totally over engineered for no benefit.

That remote is awful, but isn't usually what I've heard people refer to as flat design. Flat design tends to refer to the more simplistic software UIs that have been in fashion over the last few years.

just to clear it up:

“flat design” is a reference or common term to a graphical design style that followed skeuomorphism, not a term used for the industrial design aspect.

I guess you are referring to the previous generation.

The newest is really good, in fact I think it's the best remote I've ever used.

You may love the way it looks... but no one being honest with themselves loves the way it functions, UI is visually functional, a functionality that happens in your brain, like legibility - flat UI has very poor "legibility" if compared to something like 3d embossed win95 UI where every identification and anticipation is painfully obvious to the point that it's effortless. It's familiarity is also learned in a very short space of time; whereas flat UI continues to elude even advanced users and remains ambiguous with high cognitive load - you might not realise why, but it will feel slow, and uncomfortable for each new front end you encounter.

Designers don't like this fact because that embossed 3d look is considered ugly, but it's intuitively and obviously true.

I think all of your points are true for badly made UIs, regardless of if they are flat or not. I like flat UIs, partially because they look and behave like digital things instead of trying to resemble something else and partially just because they usually (entirely subjectively) look better. We have a deeper well of inspiration to draw from for non-flat and more experience with them (so it's easier to make them "better") but I don't think anyone can say they are inherently "better".

They’re better for accessibility for anyone less interested in learning the new technological design UIs to have their programs function, people that just want to look at something and get how it works without a manual or googling it. The functionally has never improved because of flat designs, ever.

Eliminating the 3.5mm jack was a step too far!