> Designing good UI is an incredible skill, one that few people gave, and one even fewer are willing to pay for.

I don't think it's even just that. If any of these companies did usability tests they'd discover quickly enough that their designs don't work. I guess they just don't bother.

I have worked in software development since the mid 90s, often freelance so I've probably been at 20-30 companies in total. All of these companies produced software that had some sort of UI. I think only a single time was any usability testing done, i.e. get a normal person sat in front of the software and get them to perform a task and see if they can figure it out on their own. Normally the process is that the designer asserts that this particular way is best, and that's the way it gets implemented and that's what the customer gets to use.