Author here, great question :) If principles are the elements, we can think of each system as a "molecule" with some imagination. For example, an SQL database system has many principles:

1. Abstraction Lifting (Al) + Policy/Mechanism Separation (Pm): SQL states high-level intent with precise semantics, and logical operators are decoupled from physical operators.

2. Equivalence-based Planning (Ep) + Invariant-Guided Transformation (Ig): We apply algebraic rewrites that preserve semantics (e.g., join reordering, predicate pushdown) under stated invariants.

3. Cost-based Planning (Cm): We choose concrete physical operators and join orders using a cost model and so on..

it's both

just by it's ubiquity and success it has become a template for graphical design

The periodicity reflects the allowed solutions to the Schrödinger equation for electrons in atoms. It is not some branding teams' genius design innovation.

Ironically, you are in a superstate between "can" and "should".

It is _also_ a colorful collection of boxes that a billion+ people could instantly identify.

Cashing in on that global cultural awareness is just the kind of innovation a genius branding team needs.

It does annoy me when 'Periodic Tables of X' are just lists of color coded boxes, but I get it.

The problem - and it is a problem - is that this is not a good thing.

A billion+ people instantly identify police, but dressing like a cop is a crime.

FWIW, there are other styles which emphasise other aspects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_periodic_tables