I think we’re starting to realize we can have both amazing functionality and sublime aesthetics.

Maybe, but there tends to be an inverse relationship between “sublime aesthetics” and products with a high degree of functionality. It’s very hard to do both, because the UI density required to do the job is inherently at odds with making something subjectively gorgeous (e.g. full of whitespace and eye-popping color palettes.)

Facebook’s design principles document explains how their decision to emphasize user content causes their visual style to remain somewhat subdued:

Users return to our site to be surrounded by friends and other people near to them. This is a central promise of our product, that the people you care about are all in one place. This is why our voice and visual style stay in the background, behind people’s voices, people’s faces, and people’s expression.