I really do agree with and like the eOS design principles. But for this to work, the applications have to be bullet proof, and they are not - Midori and Geary are broken apps, and this breaks the whole design of elementary, because there is no choice except to replace them. Midori loads slower than chrome, and doesn't work on all web pages. I'm not talking about rendering, I'm talking javascript, which just plain fails on many sites - mainly sites that use animation, things like games and reactive. Geary doesn't sync all my mail. * I have to double check in another email client to make sure I got my email. * I have to use another email client to find old email. * Geary crashes several times a day. When it tries to send the crash report, it fails to because it tells me that it's not a valid launchpad application. Since I have to use another email client anyway, why even use Geary? This leads us to replace Midori and Geary. I the case of Midori, browsers are interchangeable. But replaceing Geary upsets the desktop design - do I install Evolution? Then I don't need Maya either. The dominoes start falling, and before you know it, the benefits of Elementary design begin to erode away, and I may as well just be using Ubuntu.
