I could enumerate countless examples. But the latest is that Chrome on my Android phone started *sometimes* showing some screen other than the last tab displayed when I closed Chrome - which I do from time to time because I can't stand having gobs of app instances showing when I hit the 'square' symbol in the bottom right corner.
Sure, that new (to me) screen contains a mini picture of that last tab, which is even labeled something like "this was the last tab you were viewing".
Um. Yeah. No shit, Sher-fucking-lock.
SO JUST FUCKING DISPLAY IT LIKE YOU USED TO! DON'T INCONVENIENCE ME WITH AN EXTRA CLICK TO ATTAIN UNTO THE (NOW) *FORMER* DEFAULT BEHAVIOR I KNEW AND LOVED! NOW *I* GET TO SOUND LIKE A MISERABLE, HOT-HEADED WRETCH FOR ANNOUNCING TO THE WORLD I'M BOTHERED BY TRIVIALITIES LIKE A SINGLE CLICK!
But you and I both know these destroyers of peace of mind are *constantly* "improving" things in ways that mostly amount to inconveniences, and the adding up of them leads to an overall sense frustration, not merely <wide-eyed isn't-life-just-always-so-wonderful look> "Oh! Just one more click! Huh! I can do that! Yep! How exciting that I get some new feature I didn't ask for, for just one more click! YAY me!" </wide-eyed isn't-life-just-always-so-wonderful look>
Worse yet, it doesn't happen all the time. Just sometimes. And you know Murphy's Law wants to have a field day with that fact, making sure it happens mostly when one has the least time/patience for an extra click.
CONCLUSION: Never sell a baseball bat.
(I'll let the reader do the math on that last one....)
Reminds me of how microsoft office, not having anything new to bring to the table, decide to completely revamp their whole UI passing it for an "update", now everybody has to learn to use word all over again.
That's what I mean when I say there's a superstructure of developers creating unnecessary work just to circulate money.
I code for a living, and it's not just our fault.
It's also the fault of marketing people and management. They think that if we stop adding "features" people will stop buying the software. They're not wrong, especially if it's a one-time purchase. Where they go wrong is that they think this is a bad thing.
Growth uber alles. The line must keep going up, no matter what.
And we developers are complicit because even if we had the balls to say no, we don't have a trade union or professional association to back us up, the way engineers, doctors, lawyers, architects, etc. do. And we don't have a union because too many of us think we're heroes out of a fucking Ayn Rand novel and don't need to engage in collective action.
But without a union, if you refuse to do something that you think is stupid, user-hostile, or unethical you'll just be fired and replaced with somebody who isn't so scrupulous.
I suspect it's not just programmers who have this problem, either. If you want to make a living in corporate America, you've got to be willing and able to at least pretend to be a little Eichmann.
I see what you mean by the timing and annoyance of such changes/improvements to software. For me (insanely) I end up taking issue with a thing that hasn't changed, years into using it and it not changing, only to realize my muscle memory out-paces itself and I want to do something other than that thing for some time (usually apps on my phone). The overzealous Murphy's Martial Law of "all things must fuck up always - to ensure "right things" go awry).
This is psychosis (for me) above all else though, I am sure.
Consolation(?), better that situation than having a Nexus 5X where Chrome doesn't work at all, nor any Google service, putting me on Firefox (but I went back to FF long term anyway), but making the phone not unGoogled but Google-less (bad sitch for a Google-first phone like Nexus 5X).