Nostalgia or good design?

Millennials get a lot of shit for being nostalgia addicts. I'll admit I have more fun playing pixelated side-scrolling cartoons like Ninja Gaiden on the NES than I do with a full on war simulator like Call of Duty. I liked that Win9x and XP just had simple, boring design elements that put the actual content front and center. Apple's Liquid Glass does just the opposite for me; it's like a visual fidget spinner that takes priority over the web page I'm trying to read in Safari.

Some things just fucking nailed it the first time, no matter how much we try to reinvent the wheel; with things like smartbeds that become a brick when AWS goes down. Or touchscreens in cars where you have to take your eyes off the road to navigate vs tactile buttons and knobs on your dash.

There's a fine line between romanticizing the past and recognizing timeless design principles. Sometimes, what I'm nostalgic for is simply the stuff that worked better the first time.