It used to be the norm that website UI updates were a one and done deal. They happened every couple of years at worst, they'd throw out the old interface and put up the new and shiny one for you to deal with. That was pretty annoying from the user's point of view but the annoyance would only last for a few weeks that it'd usually take for you to get used to it.
But nowadays it feels like every month or so every major website moves things around on the page slightly, not enough to meaningfully change the user experience but just enough to cause irritation. Just as you're done developing new muscle memory for quickly navigating the page they move things around a little bit again, inducing the feeling of persistent background annoyance as opposed to short bursts of more intense discomfort we're used to associating with UI updates.
I'd argue that this way of doing things makes the user more consciously aware of the interface they're navigating, which is a BAD thing because ideally you'd want it to sort of fade into the background letting the content its presenting be the main focus. An interface that's always in the state of flux inevitably calls attention to itself, becoming a nuisance and a distraction.
I imagine there's a variety of factors contributing to this shift in frequency and scale of change but to me personally this ship of theseus ass approach seems like the greater of two evils, not lesser.
