Look at the web today. Everything is soft. Rounded corners, Gaussian blurs, subtle drop shadows. It's all designed to hide the machine. To make us forget we are staring at a grid of pixels.
The Lie of Material Design
Material Design tries to mimic paper and ink. It simulates physics that don't exist. It's a comforting lie.
The Truth of Brutalism
Brutalism in web design, like in architecture, is about truth to materials. In architecture, that material is concrete. In the web, it is the raw HTML/CSS grid. Borders are hard. Colors are high contrast. Typography is utilitarian. It admits it is a website. It doesn't try to be a cloud.