I agree with you and I am sure I am not saying anything new, but the fact that on the web content, presentation and marketing sites heavily outnumber webapps, and that one needed to stand out - even if superficially - from countless other options, caused a much larger emphasis being put on customizability, looks and originality which didn't stop at layouts colors and typography, but seeped into interactions. So a lot of jobs got created, lots of users suffered from slow, confusing and buggy UI/UX but at least lots of originality and prettiness was had :)