But let’s be real: they’re way too marketing-y for the HN crowd. Don’t they know we like 10px text and as few margins as possible? Information density, people!
It is clearly a company doesn't want to be lumped together with Typeform, Surveymonkey or Google Forms, so it's positioning itself as a "employee engagement, performance and development tools". They want to sell tooling that is specific to HRs and other people that might have the desire for those specific tools.
I get the desire for boxing things in 10 or 20 neat categories, but companies (and especially those that have a sales team) are often looking to differentiate themselves.
Whether they are able to execute this well remains to be seen, naturally.
Also, even if you're an information density nerd you need tactical whitespace that helps you quickly jump to the right text box.
I struggled with what you describe and art/design more generally. I started photography as a tech person and naturally gravitated to being a gear head. Now I still shoot with my ancient Canon EOS 7d and it's much more relaxing. I only got there by doing everything by making hard break from looking at the technical aspects, avoiding certain forums, finding photo walks without gearheads, etc.
With time I started to appreciate other elements of design and be able to put things together without the feelings that existed before. I'm not sure if there is a particular psychological description of this. There is definitely an element of my anxiety at play though.
The 10px and margins get to me too. I'm probably better at articulating my views now with designers that results in productive outcomes. If designers only have the ear of the CEO though it's a lost cause.