That's actually pretty insightful (and more interesting than the usual "kids these days grrr" flavor this subject usually takes on)

I could see this being a "pick two" scenario:

1) Low visual noise

2) High visual legibility

3) High density

The industry used to pick 2 and 3, now they tend towards 1 and 2, but it may genuinely not be possible to have all three

True, but simple color contrast can work wonders. It’s not just a symptom of flat design — it’s a symptom of flat and pretty much all the same color design.

It might be a touch ugly, but as an example, if the main interface were black and the URL bar were white, you could nix all the texture/shadow/borders/margins you want and still be fine.

This is why I use the high contrast mode in MacOS. It ads nice solid black borders to all inputs. Originally I tried it out while fixing a bug, but now I can’t go back lest everything looks so monotonous and washed out.

Indeed. It’s a tradeoff. I’m not sure how I feel overall on flat design, I just hate the transparency in software everywhere sometimes.

True but I continue to think (hope) they plan to include a touch interface for, ahem, maciOS.