The menu bar is a useful pattern, but a lot of applications don't need it. Especially if the focus is on a single task. In this case it's preferable to have a few buttons that are always useful, a handful of options tucked away, and a settings dialog for configuring the behavior of the software. And for the software that don't fit in this category (LibreOffice, GIMP, Audacity,...), they can still have the menu bar.

The menu bar isn't obtrusive, but for a lot of software, it's just quick access to common settings (VLC).