Theming, UI design is nowadays a form of art.

We, the users, should just contemplate it, not really use those things.

Jokes aside, it's a worrying trend indeed, like very low contrast colors, actions and info hidden a click away from an almost empty display.

Even Wikipedia is not using the full page width and doesn't bring the default focus on the search widget.

All that said, also for me Plasma really rocks. Only defaults are a little bit pesky.