(warning, rant follows)
I wonder if the trend to confusing designs has something to do with the recent rise of "use case centered" UI design.
My impression is that many graphical designs in the past were designed by coming up with certain fundamental abstractions or metaphors first and then integrating the different functions of the software into it: That way, we got windows and standard widgets which function the same way everywhere, no matter which particular application makes use of them. We also have abstractions like "files" or "desktop icons" that a user can interact with in a consistent way independent of application.
This way of design has pitfalls: You can choose the wrong metaphors and paint yourself into a corner, you can overvalue consistency to the point the UI becomes cumbersome to use or you can find that a new feature doesn't fit into your abstractions and you have to shoehorn it in. However, what this design guarantees is that the user has some basic tools to orient themselves, without needing to consult a manual for everything or remember some random onboarding popup that appeared a week ago when the user had completely other things on their mind.
I feel today, UI design has shifted away from common abstractions to the point it's almost seen as an anti-pattern. Instead, the design process is started with assembling an exhaustive list of "use cases" or "user stories": The app is supposed to enable the user to do the tasks on the list - and only those tasks. Then, every item on the list is passed, one-by-one to the UI team, who add a button, gesture or other affordance to perform exactly that task. Finally, users are watched via telemetry to see if they are using the app as intended and if any additional tasks must be added via the above procedure.
This method of design does have advantages: The most common tasks are easy to access, even if they are, by themselves, complex procedures involving different components (such as "make a photo, color-correct it, upload it to Twitter and refer to it in a tweet").
On the other hand, everything that falls outside ymthe immediate attention of the developers becomes ridiculously hard to do or even impossible: Take the above photo, but zip it, then send it in an email? Sorry, you need an app for that. Take a photo, color-correct it and send it to mastodon? Sorry, not integrated. Etc, etc.
To be honest, I have no idea if modern UI design really is done like this, but it very often feels that way. I really wonder if a return to some well-dosed consistency wouldn't improve a whole lot of things both for casual and power users.