I notice that sites and software with less superficial value (less style, inspiration, or simply "neat-ness") often succeed far above their fantastically, well-designed counterparts.
Is the style, creativity, & inspiration side of interface design not equally important compared to the content, efficiency, & productivity side of interface development?
In other words, if the buttons are where they should be and I can understand everything that's going on, is it not important to focus on additional fancy style?
Examples:
Reddit vs Digg
Reddit:
Known globally to look terrible, used monthly by 112 million unique users.
Digg:
Looks great, used monthly by 20 million unique users.
Windows 7 vs OSX
Windows 7:
Looks alright, but known more for efficiency and compatibility than beautiful, smooth design. 500 million licenses sold.
OSX:
Looks fantastic, performs and interacts smoothly, but 'natively' incompatible with most of the world's desktop software. 50 million copies sold.