Ask HN: Has any software ever supplanted the leader because it was "beautiful"?

I worked with graphic designers who put beauty over function when designing user interphases. It was always a minus for the software since it mainly caused the software to be harder to use. Beauty is good but software that is easy to use and has good functionality will beat it every time.

Given that, look at Apple OSs they emphasized beauty over function or at least they put a lot of resources into making it look good. There's a set of people who put lots of weight on beautiful software and will pick it over other software that may have better functions.

It is my opinion that Apple only became dominant after it became 'beautiful'; both in software and hardware.

'Beauty' also has some different meanings. Many consider ease of use or lack of resistance as 'beautiful'.

Craigslist remains popular but Facebook Marketplace seems to have supplanted a large part of it. It’s the most obvious example that I think of.

If so, it was because the customers thought "beauty" would translate into less training.