After reading you an article I remembered two things. First, the overall passion towards minimalism (in music, arts, literature) and the applications inefficiency. I felt in on my skin until downloaded cache cleaning app recently. Here there is a nice review of one. 
Don’t you find it contradictory, apps are so consumable that people have to create “app cleaners”? 
Maybe there is something similar going o with a design and graphics. We created a large visual construct, being unable to consume it, and now are trying to simplify this construct.