Your comment is a great example of not understand what design is. Design is not something that is applied at the end, or something that is in conflict with function.
Your contempt is the product of ignorance. You'd benefit greatly from some formal design education.
The OP may not have, but the implication certainly is there. "They should first be engineered, then made to look pretty." That statement, by the way, is wrong. Engineers design, which ever way you look at it or phrase it. Design is the process of solving a problem, be it visual or otherwise. It follows that tools must first be designed and then the design is implemented. That design is seen as merely making something pretty says a lot about a few of the "engineers" that post here.
Your contempt is the product of ignorance. You'd benefit greatly from some formal design education.