

As with many things the answer lies in finding a happy middle ground between the two. I’m not sure the Microsoft of today is capable of doing that though.
Funny you mention 20 years specifically as that’s when they introduced the ribbon interface, the last interface famously designed by “average users” rather than UI/UX experts. And one that was generally either loved or hated with little ambivalence.











Largely averages from back then are skewed by child mortality rates. Looking at the median age of adults at death results in a number around 75 for the late 1700s. He lived a little longer than the norm but not by enough that it was an anomaly.