My beef with this is that this dude didn’t actually talk with car designers. He’s just a Monday morning quarterback who’s guessing about how shit gets made.

Don’t guess. Go DM some designers on linked in.

If he talked to designers he’s probably learn that it’s not the regulations themselves that make cars ugly. It’s that they make RnD and manufacturing expensive, which makes companies risk adverse. If you spend a ton of money making something, and if your margins are tight, you have increased risk. And people have a tendency to make bland / safe choices when there is more risk. I say this as a product designer who’s seen this more times that I can count.