Most apps and sites don’t have much to show for, especially institutional ones. So you’re left with a whole lot of space to fill with… something. Even if you have text, most text is pure noise, also made to fill space, that goes for images too: you just have to render stuff to convey that you’re unique, insightful, trustworthy and so on; that goes for brands and individuals. I do feel the heavy preference of users of this site towards low whitespace (they’re users, after all), and I don’t personally like it, not because it’s distasteful, but because it makes me do a lot of mistakes and confuses me a lot, so I waste some time compensating for the lack of adaptation towards my ergonomic and cognitive needs. But I won’t hate on it. I embrace it because it serves me well. The same goes for whatever style you wish to shape your content. I think we start to see design when what’s contained in it offer little to no value (considering it’s minimally usable). So I think good content is what we should primarily strive for, whatever style we package it in. It’s funny how most clients get visibly uncomfortable when you make a design that’s direct. Don’t hate on designers; most just do as they’re told, or they’re selected based on the traits the higher levels expect. It’s an illusion to think most professional designers own their work and can reasonably be blamed, if anything, blame the market’s invisible hands.