It’s very funny to me that people think “the past” was a UX wonderland.
In recent years, a lot of this has gone out the window and each dev house seems to invent their own paradigms and complete UI toolkits, so while there are similarities, they are few. The cohesive, simple nature of software UI is generally a thing of the past, that most of us who experienced it are quite nostalgic for.
Generally speaking, most application UX problems were "solved" ~30 years ago, and every time someone tries to reinvent the wheel, they miss subtle, important aspects of those earlier solutions. Like the importance of consistency across time, and "principle of least surprise", and things like that. I can really go on and on ad nauseam about this because it's a huge pet peeve of mine. I cannot stand having to relearn major aspects of how to use the same software, the same OS, every 6mo because some company decided it's time to completely overhaul their design/UI, for Reasons™.
[0] http://interface.free.fr/Archives/Apple_HIGuidelines.pdf
Same thing with UI I guess.
Music generally is what people want to listen to for its own sake.
UI is disconnected from what people want; everybody wants to do something, and UI is how you get there. As is in-app advertising, electricity, and so on.
And not only is UI tied to other things that aren't available a la carte, but the whole package is frequently chosen by someone (corporate software) who will never experience the UI and didn't talk to anyone who will on the subject.
So I think it's a fallacy to assert that UI is in general what the public prefers. The same fallacy as saying consumers want binding arbitration, or melamine in their milk, or surveillance advertising.