Design that is in the interest of someone other than the user, intended to coerce or trick the user into behaviors that benefit that non-user at the user's expense.

Examples:

• Microtransactions instead of asking for the price up-front
• Using gambling mechanics in non-gambling games (e.g. loot boxes)
• Eliminating potential stopping points in the user interaction, like e.g. endless scrolling instead of pagination
• Using big, visually engaging buttons for the actions they want the user to perform ("Accept tracking") while using tiny, grey links for the actions they don't want the user to perform ("Reject tracking"), or even worse, hiding the action they don't want the user to perform behind multiple menues.
• Using wording that creates fear or other negative emotions to stop users from performing such actions ("If you cancel your subscription now, you will lose access to this, this, and that. Everything you did will be lost. Do you really want to do that?")
• Disguising ads and other non-organic content as organic content. ("I found this product and it cured my hair loss, my potency issues and made me rich at the same time! ~sponsored ad~")
• Disguising ads as notifications
• Disguising ads as the download button
• Agreeing to do one simple action contains a hidden agreement to a ton of other things

And many more things like that.

It's not evolving backwards. It's being carefully crafted to turn into exactly what corporations wanted from the beginning but couldn't do due to technical and legal limitations.

I think you'll find that, sadly, nobody is worse for HIG than software engineers, especially Linux aficionados.

They like their design as unpalatable and shit-lookalike as possible.

an alien fish dildo

That sounds intriguing.

I won't. I see what designers do that looks nice if you only look at it like at a nice pic. Software engineers at least intend to use what they make.

It's not evolving backwards. It's being carefully crafted to turn into exactly what corporations wanted from the beginning but couldn't do due to technical and legal limitations.

Yeah... That explains the user experience Windows offers versus Mac.

Anybody who's being honest will say Mac is nicer to use, especially non-tech people. Only nerds prefer the Windows design language over Windows.

Let's face it: if Macs could run game as well as windows, Microsoft would go bankrupt tomorrow.

My experience with Macs was that they are bloody unusable, so can't help you. They cause me anxiety, kill my eyes and irritate without end.

Can't say it's worse than Windows, of course.