If you set Liquid Glass to the more opaque mode in settings I find iOS usability to be fine now, and some non-flashy changes such as moving search bars to the bottom are good UX improvements.

The real stinker with Liquid Glass has been macOS. You get a half-baked version of the design that barely even looks good and hurts usability.

Apple released iOS 18.7.5:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/126347

It's a rug-pull going against the tradition of supporting the most recent 2 OS versions until the autumn refresh simply to technofascistly force users onto 26 with an artificially-created Hobson's false choice between security and usability. This is bullshit.

I'll never understand how people actually believe that their refusal to adapt, and refusal opening them up to harm, is ever not their own fault

You're choosing to not have the update. And that's fine- own it.