Even though it’s common to bully on Microsoft, it’s not true in this case. There have been many studies and user tests to find an understandable way for users to reach that massive functionality of the MS office software. The Ribbon interface was the best in those testings.
That sort of competitions exists already for ages. RoboCup is the keyword to search Youtube. Besides other shapes, the Humaoid league is this area.
Proud to say, that Germany is quite advanced in this competition. I once talked with a Prof of the winning team about the challenges. It‘s mainly speed of computing and recognition, coordination with team with close to no network connectivity (think about how crowded networks are at every standard exhibition)
It’s all Marketing. In order to attract users with fancy looking interfaces, many usability rules get overriden.
This started already years ago with the new, sleak looking Windows 10. Internally the usability problems were known. But marketing pushed for the release date. This UX drama was costly. over 5 billion in the air for the launch alone. Ending in a blame.