Taste is an engineering constraint
Why the strongest products need both clean systems and sharp judgment about what should be removed, softened, or made obvious.
Taste is not decoration after the engineering is done. It is one of the constraints. It decides whether the system feels direct or noisy, whether the interface helps or lectures, and whether the product has enough restraint to be useful every day.
Engineering gives the product its structure. Taste decides what deserves attention inside that structure. The best work usually comes from people who can hold both at once.
That means deleting more than adding, making defaults carry more weight, and giving users fewer moments where they have to stop and interpret the product.
Working note: taste shows up in the diffs. It is the decision to remove a panel, shorten a label, tighten a state, or make the obvious path actually obvious.