> Companies are longer trying to maximize users, they are trying to maximize usage.

I think this is an important point - so making the software less effective, so tasks take longer, increases 'engagement'.

There is a separate problem I think and that's who is now designing the UI.

As software shifted to the web - where early web apps were very simply interactive documents - designers from the print sphere moved over. This changed the focus from task based workflow thinking in UI design to a much greater emphasis on the visual layout/design of the page, and it seemed like a whole generation's learning about UI design got replaced with a whole generations learning about typography and visual impact.