@tehstu
“Minimalism” is •part• of the story, yes. “Clean” was something we desperately needed in 90s/00s days of flame animations behind main menus. I’m glad we shed that junk. The babies that went out with the bathwater, however, were (1) visible affordances and (2) clear visual hierarchy.
OTOH, I don’t think modern phone interfaces are minimal. They’re overstuffed: so many states, so many transitions, so many modes of interaction. Stripped down graphic design, overstuffed state machine.