Somehow it’s “characteristically ugly” for me, looking at these examples specifically. You can get good-looking documents in LaTeX if you customize formatting just a little bit, but the default colors, shapes and even fonts are just off. Especially Beamer.
It’s really like a style of clothing: a sort of old man’s suit that looks normal in academic institutions but in most other settings you do look like you’ve just come from that institution.
The typesetting is much better than anything in common (non-design-professional) use though.
On the flip side of the coin, I would say don't attempt to customize it. LaTeX out of the box is essentially what you need for an easy to read document.
There is no LaTeX graphic designer out there. I would agree to a little defeat and say the poster example on that website looked bad. If customizability is something people are looking for LaTeX is not the ideal choice because the learning curve for advance use can be incredibly steep, you may not have a good eye for good graphics if you are using LaTex in the first place and you might compromise early and say good enough.
100% agree. Some people have a fetish for wide aspect ratio fonts, such as some of the Computer Modern family. Must have been the fashion at some point.
It’s really like a style of clothing: a sort of old man’s suit that looks normal in academic institutions but in most other settings you do look like you’ve just come from that institution.
The typesetting is much better than anything in common (non-design-professional) use though.