How does a game’s UI affect the actual gameplay experience for you?

One of the things that really makes it hard for me to play WoW Classic is the UI. Not because I’m not familiar with it, but because I’ve been playing WoW for so long and through so many iterations of the UI that I can’t keep it all straight — I look for improvements that don’t exist yet, and in the time since the vanilla game, time I’ve used dozens of mods to change my UI. I can customize it, which means that when I can’t get one for WoW Classic I end up not knowing what to do. It’s strange how dependent I can become to a specific set of UI features, and how the changes to WoW‘s UI over the years have really left me unable to grapple with the game.

Which is absurd and is something I’m working to overcome, but I do find myself amazed at how small changes and tweaks to the UI can alter a game. I used to use ElvUI and TukUI fairly frequently, and I to this day prefer raiding with a boss mod that pops up some kind of warning sound rather than forcing me to watch yet another visual element. This isn’t just a WoW thing, either — I really love Cyberpunk 2077 but I hate the game’s built in GPS, which uses a dotted line on a minimap that often ends up too faint to see, leading to enraged cursing when I have to backtrack because I couldn’t make out the proper turn to find the quest I was attempting to go complete.

So let me ask you guys — is there a game you love or hate entirely due to its user interface? How does the UI of a game help prevent or facilitate a fun time? How does the UI change the gameplay for you?