These are business decisions, not design choices.
> dumbing down the software
"The growth marketing team has identified an untapped demographic".
> change for the sake of change so designers can justify their jobs.
"We've decided to rebrand to focus on XYZ market."
> mobile devices because every one of them is slow
"If we can run the website on the user's device we'll save on developer time."
> Ugly software is a good sign because tells me no designer was there to ruin it.
It just means they don't have the money to hire a good designer. Meaning no marketing department. For whatever reason designers don't do open source. Looking at you GIMP. Blender finally bit the bullet.