Why Removing a Design Element Is Harder Than Adding One
Addition can justify itself locally. Removal requires understanding which decision, state or hierarchy the element actually supports.
Adding a badge, CTA, tooltip or explanation is easy because each addition can justify itself locally. The accumulated result can still become noise.
Removing something is harder because you need to know what decision it supports.
I ask: which problem does this element explain, which state does it carry, what decision becomes harder if it disappears, is the same information already available elsewhere and does it strengthen the primary hierarchy?
If those questions have no good answer, removal is often the more disciplined product decision.
Simplicity is not the aesthetic of having fewer elements. It is being able to explain why every remaining element exists.
Architecture in the Wild
Field architecture through live state, information, interaction and product-boundary decisions rather than abstract diagrams.