Ben Thompson[Stratechery]: “Again, though, I think Ive is in part a cautionary tale: he did his best work under Jobs, while the last few years have been more fraught from a design perspective; if Ive was not entirely up to the task of being the ultimate arbiter of all things Apple, who can be?”
That captures it for me. It always felt like after Steve Jobs passing Ive was free to do what he wanted. The checks and balances provided by Steve Jobs were gone. The obsession with thin and light was more pronounced than ever which lead to gluing components into the computer body making Apple designs less repair friendly.
Maybe that wasn’t Ive that decided to go thinner and lighter at the expense of all else? I have no idea, I’m just spitballing here. But Ive does get the credit and blame for all designs in the post Jobs era.
