I'm also gen Z. For me the reaction to Windows Aero was similar, but I guess that's just how it is because it's what we grew up with. The blog post is talking about imitating materials in general though, and I can totally see how it can be taken too far. Think putting wood PNGs as backgrounds for app elements or adding brushed aluminium textures on sliders, things like those look pretty dated to me now. I'm guessing the Microsoft designers just had a far lower tolerance for that stuff, since IMO Windows 7 was very tame in terms of this - it felt just abstractly transparent and shiny more than skeuomorphic.

Metro was also just pretty bad on its own, irrespective of what came before or after. It was way too simplified, and despite that everything was HUGE so you could really see every bit of detail that was taken away. As usual, Microsoft was chasing the big new thing that never came by designing half the OS around tablet PCs. Windows 10 toned it down like how 7 toned down on Vista, and after that it was pretty alright for me. A much better example of a UI that came out then and aged well was Android 5 with Material Design.

Must be a Gen Z meme because it was traumatic for those that lived it. It reminds me of Windows Vista and, my god, the first few years of KDE 4 - it has taken me until last year to try KDE again (and finally it has shed it’s silly hard contrast black transparency phase)

Gen Z like it because of nostalgia, not because of quality or because it actually looks any good.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plasma_Workspaces.png - ugh.