I enjoy nice-looking UIs with smooth animations too, but first they have to cover the basics. That's why I like HN's UI a lot - it's not fancy but it has the rare property of being usable, which already places it in the favorites of UIs in my personal ranking.

I don't think it's meant as a "filter", just built for its target audience of people with high enough standards to dislike blinking notification icons, cookie popups and website loading screens.

> with the idea that somehow, technical brilliance and design chops are inversely correlated and can’t co-exist.

I don't think I've ever witnessed someone expressing this opinion. It just seems to be a rarity that a budget covers both function and form. And if I have to choose then I prefer to not throw my PC out the window.