Or a mouse. I'm getting too old to enjoy playing the maze game with 20px nested drop-down menus or Operation with toolbars and razor-thin scrollbars.

Even the vote buttons on HN are a bit obnoxiously small for my non-mobile use. Touchpads are a thing.

Well, for one, this trend is widespread on desktop/mouse interfaces as well. Also, even in touch interfaces that's not so straightforward. You must take care not to introduce so much whitespace that the information density is too low to enable practical use. If you don't then your usability is wrecked.