IMHO, that assessment and corresponding answer applies perfectly not only to Momentum scrolling but also to most of the current trends in UX design. I wonder how we got into this worship of aesthetics to the detriment of everything else.
Just today I googled how do I disable Apple's annoying "your password is required to enable touch ID" on macOS, not the one after reboot (that's understandable), but the one that seems to be based purely on time. The answer seems to be "you can't". The closest thing I found is the "bioutil" command that allows you to reduce that timeout but not increase it. I may try reverse engineering it to see where that check for maximum value is implemented, and if I can call the underlying API directly to bypass it.
I'm not especially dumb but after they dropped "hamburger button" I think it took me about 10 years to ever look for the "hamburger button" for basic functionality, especially on non-touch devices.
What horrors lie beneath the hamburger? What void of regular function could there be?