Apple spent the next several years walking lots of the changes back, in particular the thin text and overdone translucency
One thing I'll definitely give Apple is that they have walked back some design decisions that were total flops in the past, such as the butterfly keyboard and the touchbar (though I found it more than a bit annoying when I'd see reviews saying how great and visionary Apple was for simply undoing bad decisions - it deserved an "OK, good" not an "OMG Apple is amazing!!)
I like this article because it points out how undeniably awful some of these decisions were in a "this signifies something is seriously, fundamentally wrong with Apple design" way. I really hope Apple listens a does a major course correction.
Count me as someone who never turned around on the iOS 7+ flat design being a usability degradation.
> then a little while later people decided it was amazing and lovely to look at
Sorry, who decided this? Which people exactly?
People just don't like new things that change what they are used to.