Wow. I haven't been using FB much after dropping it from my phone. They are very similar. Hiding content below the fold is one thing, but IMO not being able to interact with any of it without scrolling is bad design for a number of services, Twitter being one of them. For a Medium article, I am going to have to scroll anyway to interact with the one thing I am there for. It's tolerable. However, Twitter has a core status/update functionality that should be served, at least to some extent, by casual perusal. But, like you said, it seems like they are trying to be something they aren't. They probably found the more you have to scroll, the longer you are on the site, which would be a positive signal leading to a negative experience.The icons annoy me as well and it just seems like they're trying to be something they aren't.
Yup. And insane amount of user testing and eye tracking has been done on facebook's profile designs and it's set up in an ideal way to maximize the information you can get about a person quickly. The big brand image is also the thing users spend the most time looking at and brand's love this. Giving them real estate to sell their brands is necessary to keep those people who actually pay for ads. Once a company restructures to focus on money, the person using the service for free falls by the wayside. Keep in mind, Twitter is now public which means it has shareholders to answer to. Shareholders want ad dollars. Brands want to promote their brand. Consumers don't get shit.They probably found the more you have to scroll, the longer you are on the site, which would be a positive signal leading to a negative experience.