@catwavez, I hear ya -- fair enough & thank you for the rundown. That's helpful and interesting. Didn't mean for my reply to be testy or whatnot, but I'm not above liking things simply because they're pretty at times, so I kinda wanted to think through my feeling about aesthetics vs. function anyway, lol.
@Lugia that's an interesting point about about "samey" racks and does make the to me otherwise baffling design of something like, say, the Moog Grandmother, more understandable (though I realize there's an all-black version as well). While my modules are mostly black, I do find it helpful at times to break up portions that sort of blend together with an accent (via any non-black module). I don't perform live, but I feel a little OCD about my evolving rack at times (not uncommon in this hobby I'd imagine) and sometimes vacillate between liking the idea of a very clean feel with a lot of consistency (an all- or mostly-(black) ADDAC system makes me salivate a bit, lol, I love the vibe of their modules -- it's like the appeal of Doepfer vintage, if DV had to clean itself up to attend a fancy social function) -- and also wanting a case that has a lot of variety and character and personality and a bit of chaos to it, continually trying modules from many different makers (maybe part of the reason I can sort of embrace Blue Lantern's aesthetics). It's going to be the mish-mash / a-little-of-everything route regardless, for various reasons, but I used to be a freelance designer and am currently an artist, so I always end up musing about the overall visual aesthetics of things, and always vacillate between enjoying extreme clarity and order, and cozy, personality-rich chaos.
@plragde -- I just looked up that module, and ... yeah, agreed, lol. Tbh despite all I've said about it, I can usually get past or come around to most module aesthetics if I have a reason to (great value, needed functionality, a useful accent/splash of something different, etc.) and can at least theoretically see the appeal of many modules ranging from Manhattan Analog to Dreadbox Chromatic, ADDAC to Blue Lantern. But occasionally an especially bad aesthetic can be a dealbreaker -- the other that comes to mind I noticed recently was a ... mm ... I think a Birdkids module, maybe? ... that had a unicorn graphic on the front and the unicorn's butthole was one of the main jacks or something like that. I get they're just having some fun, but ... man. Snazzy FX comes to mind too ... I think being aggressively psychedelically ugly is just kinda their thing, but, man ... I'd have to really want one of their modules to get past the look of most of them.
As a side note, being an aesthetically driven buyer to a small degree, it does drive me a little nuts when I can find something like an ADDAC Marble Physics in cherry red and matte black, but for some reason every vendor -- including ADDAC themselves -- wants a ton extra for the black one.