That Windows screenshot really is chaos. I would love to hear a defense of that design because I am missing any merit to it.
That's not even style over function. It's just pure blandness. Greys and flat whites everywhere.
* Why does the title bar have a folder icon, some unknown icon and the same folder icon again? What does the dropdown arrow icon represent?
* What's all that whitespace in the folder tree?
* What's that down arrow next to the "forward" button? Oh and there's one next to the help icon, what does that do?
* Why is "Picture Tools" in highlighted yellow in the ribbon? Is that the most important thing a user needs to be aware of?
The whole Windows 10 UI is full of non-sensical UI decisions that result in a confusing, grey experience. And it's not like Microsoft isn't capable of good UIs, they've done a great job from at least Windows 95 to Windows 7. Then they've just dropped the ball hard.
You're specifically in the "Pictures" library / folder and the only files in the folder are image files.
I'd agree, and I'd have to extend that sentiment to almost everyone working on Windows Desktop. Forced updates,updates that frequently break things, a start menu that breaks because it is tied into the Windows Store database, a Windows Store database that breaks, ads in the f'ing start menu, needlessly replacing perfectly working system configuration tools with flat-ui bullshit alternatives that don't have the same functionality...