> Flat design has been coming about recently after significant increases in hardware and network capabilities

sorry, I should have emphasized the web/browser part of my explanation more. the chip in an iphone could support these things, but could safari? we didn't even have a <video> tag back then. 3D transforms in CSS were brand new (i.e. unusable if you wanted to support legacy browsers), same for WOFF files, requestanimationframe, drop shadows, and so many other modern conveniences. 4G was also brand new -- and uncommon. the web was going through some serious growing pains, and that's just in the highly developed world -- this doesn't really touch on the global availability/use/implementation of the tech we're talking about. it's possible my timeline is off, but designers were still constrained by those doing the engineering during this time. maintaining web apps with hacks to support as many browsers as possible was a nightmare. and so compromises were made -- clearly. and I think flat design came out of that, for better and for worse.

> Current web apps that use flat designs are just as heavy as any other.

that's what I was getting at toward the end of my comment with regard to observing constraints that may no longer actually exist.

Yes, and I was suggesting that the motivation was not due to constraints as the trend emerged degree after these constraints were long since relevant. I tend to agree with other comments here that it has come to serve as fashion (different for its own sake) rather than any UI/UX benefit.

ah, yes, I agree with you on where we're at now, it's not coming from any sort of necessity currently. my initial comment was only meant to say "there's a time and light in which this might have made some sense."