>>> Only difference seems to be it's more inconvenient.
This is where we differ. For me that is not an inconvenience but part of the experience. I enjoy picking a record to play, removing it from the cover, checking it for dust or dirt, and putting it on the turntable. Probably mostly for nostalgic reasons.
Breaking ties is not only between equal numbers of people. It can be between one person with a very strong point of view and five others that oppose that decision.
> UX is a by-product of the mess we have made of web development.
UX is about much more than web development. It's about the user's experience of any product or service, including software, vacuum cleaners, attending an event etc.
The phrase 'User Experience' was invented by Norman of the Nielson Norman Group. He had a book to sell and a professional niche to make. That is fine but the consequence is that now we have thousands of other 'Normans' who aren't seem to think they are the most important people on somewhat bloated teams.
Before this Norman chap came along as the god of this new discipline there was some care for the user taught in computer science degrees. It has always been a consideration.
When the vacuum cleaner was invented Mr Hoover didn't think 'I must hire a UX expert for this new hovering hoover (the Constellation model)'. When the Beatles put on a few gigs at the Cavern Club John and Paul were not using the phrase 'user experience' to get the sweat on the walls right (or the lack of alcohol being sold on the premises).
The phrase 'user experience' would have sucked back then for the process of just designing something right, given technical constraints.
A lot of the best design has been done by engineers who didn't need to consult a higher authority before a product could be brought into being. But we remember engineers for what they invent not how they design the user experience. If we go back to the vacuum cleaner example, some aspects of the design relate to manufacturing techniques, so if you know that it is cheaper to drill a series of holes rather than a slot then that defines how you make something like how the adjustment works. Some intimacy is going on there so the design is not an abstract thing devoid of understanding of either the user or the manufacturing.
With this bizarre Norman invented 'user experience' discipline there is a definite disconnect between this aspect of 'manufacturing'. You have got people trying to boss the team around and have people do what they say when they haven't much of a clue on how it works under the hood. Industrial designers who design things like vacuum cleaners are a different breed. They used to use words like 'ergonomics' in their framing of understanding the user.
Human Computer Interaction was what the buzzword used to be. There has always been consideration of the user, but, if you only have a teletype interface then you end up with something that gets the job done first, user experience comes later when an Alan Kay comes along. His trick was to imagine computers were vastly more powerful and design/build for that.
Our current silo-ing off of design into this 'user experience' thing where only self-professed experts are allowed to put the buttons in the right place cuts the 'design is how it works' part of the problem space out, meanwhile it also makes developers able to slack off in this area. We are all human and we can all do 'user experience' (despite lots of design that goes to the contrary).
This is where we differ. For me that is not an inconvenience but part of the experience. I enjoy picking a record to play, removing it from the cover, checking it for dust or dirt, and putting it on the turntable. Probably mostly for nostalgic reasons.
edit: formatting