This is my position exactly. And skeumorphism wasn't even in my vocabulary (until now, thanks!). The example I tend to compare email to is the general design of early electric lights: so many of them simply looked like gas lamps into which an electric bulb had been jammed. Like these: http://goo.gl/808F6 Sure they're pretty, but over time, we've designed much better electric lights by moving away from the restrictions imposed by an open flame. Email, on the other hand, hasn't evolved much at all since its birth in 1982 (!), and better filters simply don't impress me anymore.
And the cost in bandwidth and wasted time email and its spam problem impose on us cannot be understated. We really do need something new.
And the cost in bandwidth and wasted time email and its spam problem impose on us cannot be understated. We really do need something new.