No swipe interpreted, it pains me because it's absolutely true! But there's a lot of people out there that fancy themselves UX designers (hey, that's what everyone's hiring). No true Scotsman, erm, UX designer would do something for the reason that it's "cool and clean," that could be a side effect of a good design. There are some very talented designers out there who make some very beautiful designs... that would look great on Dribbbbbbbble but confuse their core audience/customer base.

I have to agree with you on the examples you gave, those sound like things that were useful to users. It would have been nice if the designer, in wanting to make something "cool and clean", found a way to make those elements belong to the overall design aesthetic, instead of simply removing them. That's the lazy way. The hard things that requires real talent is making utility elements feel sexy.