Why was that? What causes such fads? Why did everyone go along with it?

Speaking entirely out of my ass here:

FOMO for sure is one of the driving factors.

"We cannot risk looking outdated". So weak management, probably.

But also talent availability I suppose. If there's a new trend, the pool of people you can hire include many that are in on that trend.

UI frameworks too, probably. The modern thing™ does the modern thing™ and you do want to be on the modern thing, because you fear that only that receives security fixes or whatever.

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darkwater an hour ago | parent [-]

If UIs today still looked exactly the same as Windows 2.0 or System 7 or CDE people will be bored to death. Aesthetics come and go and come back, it's part of how humanity worked for a few centuries already.

	▲	hypfer 17 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Do I need to be entertained by my butter knife, mop or screwdriver? I really don't think that "keeping people entertained" is a sensible goal within the context of building software as tools and not software-adjacent Art. Which is not to say that I would not want a great and polished experience, but that is not equivalent to "being entertained". ___ It would be nice if not everything one interacts with would try to get some sort of emotion out of me. Bring back being bored.

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zuminator an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Make-work. Managers needing to justify their promotions with a new way of doing things. Whole teams are given a reason to stay employed. OS and device obsolescence is achieved. A win all around, save for the consumer.