My first assignment at my current employer was a short-term, fixed-price project where we had to create a rather boring internal web application that just showed some tables and sent off some pre-made requests to certain endpoints. The UX wasn't high on the priority list, and TBH I wish I had something like this back then, since we had to build our own, then send it off to some cheap designer that came back with shudder light blue gradients. I'd totally go for straight and sleek (and boring) like this project next time.
Never mind that if "boring" isn't the wanted option, the alternative is probably pretty much dominated by corporate identity anyways, where a blank slate is better than some involved design (e.g. gradients, desktop-like 3D look or material design).
