I suppose there's a good balance between designing what looks right in the 'eye of the beholder' and common sense in good communication.

Here's one take: https://designschool.canva.com/blog/design-trends-2016/

Steve Jobs was a proponent of skeuomorphism (making things look realistic and glossy) which, when he was alive (and Apple was thriving) represented an era of 'new' tech achievement due to "iris"-level color and graphic representation on devices that were not possible a decade earlier.
It was the age of AlienSkin Eye Candy filters. Apparently, as electronic devices became more sterile in design, the glossy/gooey effect began to look a little garish and thus outdated. MS and Google eventually pressed in with the current and more aesthetically functional "flat" look that has become the modern norm.

My observation (as a designer) is that the "architectural" styling the author in the linked article described is actually the old-hat scheme that higher-end advertising firms have been pushing since the 90's, which by the way is not what you see when you look at what constitutes as mass-consumer product packaging which still uses a lot of 3-D shading, drop shadows and 'bling.'

Styling is very demographics-based if not regional, believe it or not. And really, what comes to the surface in the mainstream is often what is considered to be economically trendy.

Ultimately as Chipp so expressed, good design all comes down to common sense and good communication.
Many of us have grown along with Michael's Moi and understand his direction which aims for a program that is approachable, easy and even fun.

The original cartoon icon is perfect!

I personally don't like knocking any artist's attempt, but I can say that the light 'bulb' itself is out of date as most of those types aren't even really sold in stores here anymore unless they're specialty types like halogen. Since the induction of LED lamps the shape of what constitutes a "light bulb" has blurred and really, the classic shape has become the 'classic'.