Hi Ed,
I haven’t read the “Ornament and Crime” in fact I am learning about it from you. I will see to check it out sounds like an interesting essay! :)

Regarding my thoughts on the idea of having object’s functionality as priority over the looks, I would say it depends. :) What if the purpose of the object is to give aesthetic pleasure?

I personally am in the camp of having the functionality in 1st place but that’s only my preference as a user. So I think priorities should shift based on what is the goal of the product/project.

Thanks for reading the article! :)