'Pretty' versus 'design'

Google has recently got religious about ‘design’ - or what it thinks is design. All the sites have been made-over. Subtle greys and anti-aliasing are everywhere. All of Google looks easier on the eye. 

For example, ‘Google Play’, the new umbrella content store that combines apps, movies, music and books,  has a ‘pretty’ logo with a careful font selection:

That logo is most often seen on third-party websites (and indeed posters and print ads) for that content providers to promote their content as being available on Google Play, so Google (and Apple) need to create a ‘button’ graphic for those third parties to use. 

So how have Google and Apple addressed this requirement?  

Apple’s graphic is clear, readable and works well at many sizes. Google’s graphic is almost unreadable.

Clearly, Google has learnt that ‘design’ matters, but hasn’t learnt that there’s a difference between making things look pretty and good design.