There's a link in the story to USSR Posters, which is always fascinating, especially in this context.
Unfortunately, the USSR posters are blocked here at my (apparently Communist) office. As for flat design, I think it's a matter of aesthetics over functionality. Our current collective taste is toward simple. I think trying to come up with an academic justification for why flat is "better" is a silly exercise, because you can't quantify what is obviously subjective. "It looks cooler" doesn't sound very erudite, but that's what this whole thing boils down to.
The comments on the post mirror your comment. I tend to agree that the cleaner the design, the easier it is from a user point-of-view, but I also find that designers rarely think about the user experience first. I know when I'm designing I am just trying to make something that look great. The minimalist features that are coming into play look good these days, mainly because they aren't the same things we've been seeing for the last 5, 10, 20 years. If you look at /r/crappydesign, you see most of the things pointed out are things that look like they were designed and coded in the 90s. It's "outdated" just like those glass blocks that used to be hip.
Glass blocks are still hip if you know how to use them...
The first building is stunning! I've always associated those frosted glass blocks with shady, sketchy buildings, lol.
Yep. That's the Mainson Hermes in Japan by Renzo Piano. Both photos are of the same building. That's an interior shot of the hallway along the facade.
I love those fucking glass blocks, they're rad as hell. Glass and wood is cool. Glass and wood will be cool until the end of time. Metal is rarely cool. Plastics are always uncool. Leather is iffy. Also, as an aside, that puts me among the foremost website designers around. Check out dat website. So flat. No, its not because all I did was color something orange in paint.net. Shut up.
ENHANCE and heyoo favicon https://www.dropbox.com/s/92erkgiwzk0ehwu/favicon%20%281%29....
For the record, I wasn't trying to be disparaging; making something that looks awesome is an important job, and one that I certainly couldn't do. My only point was that it's not necessary to make this about more than aesthetics, because in the right hands, flat or skeuomorphic designs could be perfectly functional.