God, I abhor this sort of peevery. But especially here, when the linguistic innovation is so damn useful.

The "trendy" meaning of trope, is, as far as I can tell, not one easily replaced by another word. It's not a motif so much as a kind of generalization of what archetype is to a character. In its narrative sense it refers to the sort of "tools" and "parts" the story teller uses to construct their tale, and I absolutely love the extension of meaning to refer to UX... tropes (what word would you use here? Motif? That suggests to me more aesthetic design elements than things like pull-to-refresh)