This has been the story for 20 years now. It's a case study in what happens when a product has a guaranteed revenue stream and the company has 0 incentive to innovate or improve anything. However, managers still need to have "launches" and leave their grimy fingerprints on the UI so they can pat themselves on the back and advance a rung on the career ladder. From a would-be user's perspective it appears this dynamic is the sole driver of changes to MS office.
> This has been the story for 20 years now.
Even longer. I remember in college in the '90s we would pack two things away over the summer to make sure the next year would go well: 1/4 oz weed because it took so long for the market to pick back up in the fall, and a floppy disc holding Word 5.1 since Word 6.0 for the Mac was such garbage.