This proves two things for me, design has nothing to do with the success of a product, and the second: design is subjective and changes not only from person to person but also for you, there is an absolute chance that one design that you love now, may hate in future.
Obviously, there are examples of both cases (e.g. Facebook is an "ok" design but Stripe is beautiful).
Then there are other things. For example, this CB Insights post (https://www.cbinsights.com/research/personal-finance-apps-st...) mentions a study where "Stanford psychologist BJ Fogg gauged people’s reactions to various websites and asked them what factors played the biggest part in their assessments, design was unanimously the most commonly-cited reason for trusting or not trusting a particular site."
So I wouldn't say design has nothing to do with the success of a product, but it is true that it's not enough to make a product good.
Plain text that gets as many selling points into the eyes of the visitor above the fold is what I believe is the most sensible route if you're debating bit to design your landing page.
I assume, right or wrong, that if you out that much work into your landing page, you must have put the same into your product.
Now if your product stinks after trying it, I'll leave just as fast. But at least I have it a try. I'm sure I'm not unique in that regard.
Now, if you are resource constrained, focus on the product first, of course.