> because the market (as broken as it often is) usually, eventually, selects for taste being visible in the end product.

The operative word being "visible", in the most literal sense? 9 times out of 10 the market seems to select for cost first, appearance second, functionality third.

I think prime example of this is the prevalence of ad-supported business models. People would rather be interrupted with tasteless ads and pay twice (attention, everything costs more to pay for ads which they watched) than pay a tiny sum of money that they can afford.