I'm happy to see the HIG (Human Interface Guidelines) referenced in the post. I was unaware Apple still maintained such a document? There was a time when TOG's HIG [1] was the Bible for the Mac interface. UI nerds at Apple (and likely elsewhere) would enjoy debating/interpreting them for some project or another. (I don't recall anyone being burned at the stake but there were definitely discussions that could reach a…
They kinda do. For a long time HIGs were well researched documents with great examples and explanations.
For the past few years they've been used as post-hoc justifications (or just examples with no justifications) for whatever designs vomits out.