>Quite contrary, I find sites with much "design" mumbo-jumbo untrustworthy. KISS is one of the most significant design-principles.
I second this. Upon seeing a site like LWN my first response is to check the visible headlines for a 2012 date somewhere (just in case :)). If the site is actually active, I'm thrilled to bits.
And with Noscript and RequestPolicy both running, "fancier" sites tend to look awful these days, so LWN seems pretty slick by comparison.