Yeah, it seems that some people mistake minimalism for "it took me 10 minutes to build and I didn't care about the visual design". It's heavy, clunky, and even though it's text-only, it has some pretty awful typography.

But, anyway, thinking that social media is about the GUI is silly. If GUI is suboptimal, people just make alternative clients and browser extensions to visit your platform despite them disliking the interface. People use Reddit or Twitter because of community, because of network effect, because other people use Reddit or Twitter. And to a smaller extent, because content format suits them. Clean UI helps to get traction, but it's never the main selling point nor the real reason why people stay.