I remember a time when usability people took pride in the high amount of work they put into what were often pretty damn great user experiences.

My takeaway from this post is very different. Minimum work, or even modest work, and the users should be so lucky they get to even use the thing.

The trend is already to dumb things down with flat design, tons of stuff not all that discoverable, and on and on I could go.

Perhaps usability has peaked, and now posts like this are the rule of the day?

Sure hope not, but I do harbor doubts.

Put the work in. It's the users who make your efforts go. Nobody else does.