Comment by bbor

Oo this is fun: guessing what the meeting was like where this decision was made. Off the top of my head, there are a few possibilities:

1. Engineers like to unify + encapsulate things where possible for its own sake, and the UX people were looped in too late.

2. There was pressure from above to make things “feel different” to stave off the accusations of “the end of an era of innovation” that get louder every iPhone/iOS release, and this stacking functionality is one of the strategies the team developed early on. No amount of negative metrics can put a hole in an Organizational Priority!

3. Despite their successful efforts to minimize intimidation-layoffs, they did end up laying off ~1000 engineers. It’s possible that the engineers were/are checked out due to a feeling of betrayal, and that the times are changing.

4. Most likely by far: a combination of all the above!

I really think it has to be some organizational mistake. No way that got past a good UX person who had the power of veto.