Yes they are, UX designers are not asked to make more efficient or usable designs, they are asked to make designs that "look good" in marketing, support ad integration, hook people into others services provided by that same company, make it more difficult to incorporate with workflows that include third-party applications, etc.
This is deliberate UX design, which is part of the enshittification process.
If you put the same amount of ads in software that looks like it's from the 90s, do you still think you'd like that 90s software? Of course you wouldn't.
Yes they are, UX designers are not asked to make more efficient or usable designs, they are asked to make designs that "look good" in marketing, support ad integration, hook people into others services provided by that same company, make it more difficult to incorporate with workflows that include third-party applications, etc.
This is deliberate UX design, which is part of the enshittification process.
You are thinking of an entirely different thing.
If you put the same amount of ads in software that looks like it's from the 90s, do you still think you'd like that 90s software? Of course you wouldn't.