Hey Ido! I really appreciate your perspective on the matter.

I feel the biggest issue with overwhelm related to UX design comes from a push-pull scenario related to structuring good, simple clean design with what the company wants/is able to achieve.

For example, if a board of directors says they want to showcase A B C D E F G H I J K on the site (as many do when you land on a site); they often want you to opt in to their newsletter, buy a product, read the TOS, check out the current promotion and many, many other things all at once (hence a high bounce rate). Meanwhile, the UX individual or team knows that the best site layout for that situation comes from primarily showcasing A B C D. However, unless they can talk the board members out of it, they are usually stuck complying with their requests.

Often times, the issue even falls on how the company is structured, despite not leading to a friendly UX experience. At that point, even the most skilled designers can only do so much to make it not as bad as it used to be, rather than making it a superb and well oiled machine.

I myself have run into many instances where me and my team agree that including or showcasing features in a certain way will lead to the best outcome. Sadly though, the people calling the shots don’t always agree, or want it done differently (even if that decision negatively impacts the customer).

Sometimes, the biggest, most important user experience related calls do not always fall on the designers themselves, but the people with no UX related knowledge.

Cheers!
- Sam