> But missing out on the refractive aspect of glass takes away the strong visual separation of layers that IMO is Liquid Glass's biggest contribution

Good. I was already on the fence about frosted glass, but I absolutely hate the refraction effect, it is super distracting and will always look ugly in certain scenarios. Yes, it is how real glass behaves, but I do not care for that. It is like someone took the worst part of skeumorphism and doubled down on it, and I say that as someone who liked iOS better before version 7.