When making feature-...
When making feature-building decisions, the question always comes down to - are we going to treat the user like they're children/idiots, or like adults? The former is the dominant form of UI/UX right now and it's not subtle.
The "reaction" to this is to bombard the user with a torrent of features and let them "choose for themselves". But this is often a disguise for a project not having proper feedback loops, or a specific vision that they want to execute on. They're assuming that the user has too much time on their hands and will figure it out on behalf of the company - at the cost of frustrating everyone else. (And it's these types of users who often end up dominating the social aspects of the site, because that's how it's designed.)
Good app design is one that respects the user's time, I think. Truth in advertising, give them what they came for, then let them go on their merry way. Everything else is gaslighting and unhealthy codependence.
Unfortunately this seems to be the dominant form of design practices right now in Web2. Government websites are notorious for this, too, with all of the unnecessary steps they make you do, often for no good reason.
Good design is extremely rare - almost enough to make you think that it doesn't exist. But with the grifters gone and new options available in Web3, maybe we might be able to break out of it eventually. It may be our only hope at this point.