There is a LibreOffice design team. I think one of the issues do far was we have had to do a lot of re plumbing which users don't really see - heck even the build system was overhauled to allow easier builds!

There's a lot more to go, but we're making progress and I think you'll start to see better UI improvements this year. I recall the first versions of Mozilla - I couldn't even type into edit boxes when I first started, but look at it now :-)

These things take time, but we have commitment and an enthusiastic community - and actually our developers are pretty responsive. well... most of us :-)