A while back I read Janlert and Stolterman's THINGS THAT KEEP US BUSY, two UX researchers pointing out that it's currently fashionable for companies to "improve" existing technologies by making them demand/waste more of your time, and unless something changes, they'll only continue to do it moreso

the intro to the book reads the scene from WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT where Eddie Valiant finally goes to Toon Town and everything is alive and repeatedly shouting "Hi Eddie!" at him as the most "fun" version of the future we're on track toward, and even then: it's incredibly, amazingly annoying

And that point about GAI and IoT is a riot! 😂

It's true. Re-skins to drive product-first metrics are all the rage in feature/scope creep organizations. I actually (having been a UXR at several) believe it is a harbinger of hostile takeovers and the layoffs to follow. Still working on the evidence for that one.