As an amateur, how can you tell that's it's overly complex? Do you understand what you're even looking at? Or do you feel that you should be able to understand it and anything above your ability to understand is "over engineered?" This seems like the Dunning-Kruger effect more than anything else.
A rule of thumb I like to use for measuring complecity for interactive visual stuff is to count how many layers there are between an action and the reaction.
For example, when a user clicks a button, how many calls and moving pieces are involved between the click and something happening on the screen as a reaction to that click.
Often it's a good indicator of how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Basically you nailed it. I am an amateur “application developer” but I have 20+ years of software engineering experience, including many - building complex web applications. The thing I did 15 yrs ago isn’t even something a typical dev would be able to do. So even though it’s not what I have done a lot, I feel I am qualified enough to comment on it.
A bit like - a history teacher (me) commenting on an anthropology paper.
