Many higher end preamps are dated and ugly, why is this?

To me the epitome of a beautiful preamp is the MBL 6010D.

Looks are important. Surely speakers are most prominent and the most important visual. Personally, I find most box speakers somewhat unattractive. At least the square box ones. Sonus Farber has sculpted boxes which are very aesthetic pleasing. For box components, I have always liked AR. They are always substantial looking. But when it comes to performance of any speaker of component, if they sound good they become good looking… sort of.

I love ugly gear too..... some of my best sounding equipment has been plain jane.

Forget looks.... let's talk functionality!  What's up with the new high end preamps that have NO controls at all.  How is that a preamp??  Also, many just have one control knob, but no labeling. How would you ever know how to turn on the stereo without some instructions??  

My last pre with digital volume was a McCormack , and while it was good I missed the traditional rotary volume knob.   I like tactile switches , buttons, knobs.  My preamp has way more functionality than it's looks suggest .   It has conventional controls, remote vol, mute, and Mono, it can drive 2 stereo amps via RCA and 2 via XLR ,  HT passthrough,   plenty of inputs.   Unreal sound quality .....  that was a good buy