Sorry, pVC, I see it exactly the opposite way.
OS 1.3, where I started was viverant, really alive. Icons were what you wanted them to be. (Some went overboard, to be sure.)
If I haddn't got to know and appreciate the power of the applications I used (& still use) at work I probably would have dropped the Amiga OS based on the look & feel of OS 2+.
The default colors (or lack of them) are like trying to find stuff in a fog bank and the blocks around the icons strangle creativity. (I remember some folks made one pixel icons and let the boxes do the rest.) I tried every box remover utility I could find.
I like Eric Schwartz's pallette for the Magic Workbench icons. As he put it, at least there is -some- color with it.
New Icons & Glow Icons improved things. Anything to get rid of the square icon handcuffs.