> Design was important enough to you to post your own comment talking about it and your own preferences, and how important it is to competition, so why are you questioning it's importance to someone else?

I think you might be conflating design and cosmetics.

Design is objective, cosmetics is subjective. I like good design even if I don't care much for cosmetics.

Read "The Design of Everyday Things" , Donald E. Norman. This book is routinely recommended here, with good reason.

Because I see design as a proxy to build quality and ergonomics. I'm not shopping for looks while getting my electronic devices, I'm shopping for quality and longevity of the thing in question.

If it's built well, dependable, ergonomic and delivers on the promise it's written on the box, I'm perfectly happy with what I got.

Yes, I have my tastes, like everybody else, but I don't satisfy my taste first and try to fill the specs to that taste. On the contrary, I start with the features and quality level I want, and go from there.