There is a lot of truth in what you say. In the UK we almost deify the architecture of the Victorian era, partly because of its nostalgic links to the past but also because it fits seamlessly together despite looking different.

And yet our legacy of building around that was brutalist concrete edifices or towers of glass and steel.

(I'll also throw my hat off to someone on UX Collective who writes an actual article about physical design instead of another one on the interaction animations of software)