We can’t avoid feature creep as viable company leaders because we would miss out on new customers. Maintaining a good UI amid constantly added features is really a product design issue. The real problem is rogue teams/line level product managers working in silos and missing opportunities to solve for feature demands with better planning and product design.
There are plenty of products have iterated over decades and maintained the same simplicity, think Ableton Live. I would even give Word some credit in that it has recovered from the earlier mess the author points out by delivering a toolbar architecture through its ribbon menus and advanced settings to hit those less common use cases while maintaining a level of approachability. Sometimes all it takes is a step back and a bit of thought on design.
You're right about the thinking. But that thinking is flawed. Must product X be used by everyone? No, there are (literally) millions of customers out there - pick a segment and serve it well.
That stems from the wrong idea that a software has to grow endlessly in its user base and revenue.
You start offering A, then you offer everything from A to F, putting complex strains on design and overwhelming your users over and over. Then you start losing the customers that liked A but find the software too bloated.
There are plenty of products have iterated over decades and maintained the same simplicity, think Ableton Live. I would even give Word some credit in that it has recovered from the earlier mess the author points out by delivering a toolbar architecture through its ribbon menus and advanced settings to hit those less common use cases while maintaining a level of approachability. Sometimes all it takes is a step back and a bit of thought on design.