To what extent do you think its possible to change behaviors like this? That is to say, to what extent do you believe people's reaction to this sort of stuff are innate human behaviors and reactions, and how much is learned through interactions to UIs and can be relearned?

And I agree, I don't see how changing the behaviors would make the world a worse place, but I think if you want to make a case for having the entire industry lead users to certain behavior patterns, an argument should be made for why this is actually improving the web, beyond one person's aesthetic preferences.