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

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 

Pre-amps are engineering products built to do a job.  For most that job is not to look beautiful.  As most here have said, the important job is to process signals accurately and without unwanted artifacts.

ARC epitomises that, having sold amps for more than 60 years that all look pretty much the same externally.  I have no issue with that.  It cements brand image.  The visual aesthetics are entirely functional, but excellently executed in terms of materials and build quality.  In fact I like it.

What we really don't need is bling for the sake of bling.  Amplifiers are not art objects.  D'Agostino falls for that, although he didn't when he ran Krell.  And he's certainly not the worst.

But let us be thankful the bling hasn't gone as far as it has in turntables, where nearly all high-end units are grossly over-designed, over-weight and over-priced.  For goodness sake, all they have to do is spin a record.

One person's sexy is another person's ugly, and vice versa.... People do have different aesthetic tastes, after all... 

That classe stuff embodies everything i hate about US design.

Sharp edges and corners- terrible feng shui. Ye olde tourist trappe script- urgh.

Oversize faceplates, rack mounts that noone uses, unsoftened brutalism throughout, no. Just no