Well, Apple made some horrible, horrible skeuomorphic UIs back in the day (See [0] for a very ancient example; or any stitched-leather UI from an iPhone before iOS 7).
Having said that, I could really use a little bit of skeuo these days. Buttons that look like buttons, sliders that resemble sliders, and the like.
I don’t understand the seemingly-universal hate for the stitched leather. It at least shows some personality and effort compared to just empty whitespace everywhere.
Real leather gives you a tactile feeling. Moreover, it reflects light differently than paper, whereas the light coming from pixels on a screen is equal in all but color.
IMHO skeuomorphism is not evil per se, but it must somehow boost usability to be justified (sliders are a good example of this). Otherwise, it's like the visual equivalent of purple prose.
This is how I feel about a healthy majority of flat UI design today (and almost the every example of neumorphism or widget with animations).
Eye candy happens when UI designers make something for a slide show demo and neither the designer or PM uses the UI while they iterate. Which is part and parcel to many areas of development today.
Having said that, I could really use a little bit of skeuo these days. Buttons that look like buttons, sliders that resemble sliders, and the like.
[0]: http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/qtime.html