Do developers actually have beta testers who aren't also developers, such as random people, or do they just assume that their users will somehow figure it out . it's like the people who design this stuff don't actually test it on random people. having your fellow developers do your beta testing is not a good beta
Given web limitations you cant just do the same UI as a desktop you have to be mindful of web browser input idiosyncrasies, screen size limitations, etc.
I've written intranet database stuff, which can be a bit a tad rough and user intensive - but when you are doing more public facing things you have to concentrate on simplification, sanity checks, added security and cross-platform issues. That stuff doesn't always come easy.
Until you get a handle on how you are going to pull-off doing X on the web you can't think too much on how to make it work easier. I think you would see better UX when you have seasoned web developers doing the apps, as they understand the environment and can now also concentrate on UX.
Web technologies don't make UI/UX harder (in a lot of ways, they make it easier!). There's just a lot of them, and they've become dominant for the vast majority of things the vast majority of users experience.
Quite often our underlying architecture simple mirrors the database structure with pattern like the Repository pattern and Active Record. Then it flows to the user. Instead of the user creating x as part of their workflow, they have to first create x on the "add x" page then go back to what they were doing.
Of course this only applies to some software, you couldn't make a word processor that encapsulate the user workflow, but for many apps, especially LOB apps, you can.
Why did this survive into production? It's clearly user hostile, especially with the way a lot of movies (comedies and action movies in particular) include extra snippets. It survived because it drove people to click on the next movie. Which is what Hulu wants, they want people to keep watching (it bolsters their viewership numbers which is what lets them charge $$ for advertisers).
A lot of web UIs have the same issue. The things they measure are clicks and page views. They don't care how good/bad the page is if it gets them views and clicks that they can sell. It's like anything else where what's measurable becomes the goal itself, even when creates a system that's hostile/counter to the original intent.
https://hackernoon.com/users-are-not-programmers-amazon-expe...
In short: the business wants to deliver fast and the users will use it anyway.