I’d guess it is in terms of user experience, which is hard to achieve if you are optimizing for looks or journey path.

The article mentions this in the Business > User section, saying (removing euphemism and double negatives) the prevailing wisdom is that you will probably be fired unless you actively worsen the product, and provide metrics to explain how you did it.

I’d think that companies with customer bases that don’t actively hate them are less likely to have big layoff rounds, but I am not a UX expert.

AFAIC all of those have degraded.