Me, two days ago:

My main wish for WWDC is to reach September, the day I have the option to install macOS 27, and observe no trace of trepidation; to be excited again to upgrade in the correct direction.

The keynote's main themes were "Platform Improvements," "Trust And Safety," and "Apple Intelligence And Siri." The latter was arguably the flagship, but the presentation's meat began – no dallying – by getting straight to] the appearance of macOS.

This segment, which they played as a typical list of improvements but which read to me as essentially an apology, directly addressed all the main concerns around Tahoe's appearance, practically point for point, some with genuine backtracking. The concentric circles about window corners? All windows will share a corner radius, "tighter" than Tahoe's default. Sidebars? Once again defined by just a vertical stroke through the window as before; not an inset, overlaid rectangle. Liquid Glass itself? A slider enables a selectable gradation from "ultraclear" (visually less transparent than what was previously called "clear") to "fully tinted" (which now seems to mean blurred or diffused). I didn't even hope for Liquid Glass to gain the traditional quality of simple diffusion, but this is pretty close if not that.

It was announced in the developer keynote that automatic glyphs throughout menus, as well, will be off by default, opt-in for developers. As it should always have been.

That leaves the dreaded specular lighting on app icons and widgets. I haven't found a clear indication this will be removed or optional, but it appears from screen shots and video that this currently angled lighting may, at least, gain symmetry, simulating an overhead source of light. That's at least more sensible.

I called Tahoe's appearance a turbulent swerve, not a permanent disaster, in the hope that WWDC would begin correcting course for the Mac. It's been a long year, but happily, the calming of last year's zeal has been prompter and more decisive than I'd hoped. It's a relief.

It was directly implied in the presentation that user feedback was critical to these refinements and undoings. Rare and humble acknowledgement for an Apple keynote, and I give the team credit for it.

It's been a day, and I've already got my wish: I'm already looking forward to upgrading, not to mention for the other improvements and jettisonning of resources dedicated to Intel compatibility. Even this foreknowledge of the incoming corrections is enough to make the remaining months with Tahoe feel a little easier-going.

I typed about this mainly to chronicle this "swerve" in the hope that we could move on. Now, for goodness' sake, let's move on.