Young me (win95-2k era) had this feeling after researching into older software principles. I think that it is not [only] the effect of personal aging, but also piling up of a junk on top of an initial simple idea in any area. We just tend to notice that with years because everything straightforward-back-then becomes complicated, and straightforward-today flies under the radar.

But for browsers there is an obvious need for apps that are not “vb in an empty vba-enabled document”. This ugly heap is only stable because an enormous effort and skill goes into making it so.