Interesting take on the take !
May I ask how old you are ? Those screenshot are not fancy indeed, I do recognize that. But middle school me would have been really excited if a website told him that he was about to program something like that.
I do find the grey theme sad and kinda kitch, too. But not the underlying promesses.
29, and I would think if anything my tolerance for drab grey industrial park motif went slightly up over time, not down.
Overall it doesn't inspire "I'm about to program that" for me. I think it's not unlike old Teenage Engineering, which felt whimsical and light hearted in a way that attracted you to play even if you'd never touched a synth before... vs new Teenage Engineering, which is $1,600 flat-pak desks that you're not sure you're allowed to sit at even though you've touched a million desks before
The worst part is, they could look modern simply changing some colors. If the characters were bright red, it would look like the very-modern game “SuperHot”
The main reason the screenshot in this article looks so amateurish is not grey or red. It's the whole layout around it, and the UI of "35.3°C" temporature meter.
I do find the grey theme sad and kinda kitch, too. But not the underlying promesses.