Just about the only thing in Dorico that bugs me is that the GUI doesn’t pull interface elements from the OS (I’m running macOS, FWIW). For example, dialog boxes are drawn with a proprietary format (but not Open and Save), and the progress bar you see when opening a project doesn’t look like progress bars do in the rest of the OS. Also, I’m seeing the old-old-old wristwatch cursor when opening a project—I can’t believe this cursor is even still in macOS, as it was replaced by the spinning beach ball of death. I can buy that a next-generation application like Dorico would prefer to draw its own dialog boxes (even though as a detail wonk I would rather have all my apps on macOS look like they belong to macOS, I understand that the team wouldn’t have done it without a good reason), but why would a next-generation application be displaying a cursor that’s 15 years out of date? (Not that it hurts the program one bit—I’m just curious!)
I agree with this. I think the OS’s create a common narrative that’s quickly recognisable.
I appreciate that developers have their own take on things, but years (decades) of putting up with, for example, Adobe software pulling in their own direction just makes me think those that don’t conform are odd, rather than individual.
That said, I do laugh when I see the wristwatch. Well, shake my head is probably more accurate. It’s so old I thought I was back on my Amiga…
We are a small team, and in order to be able to efficiently target both Windows and macOS we have to be able to make use of cross-platform application framework technologies so that, as far as possible, we can develop the software simultaneously on both platforms. It’s also important to us that the application looks and feels the same on both platforms.
The application framework we’re using, Qt, does still use the old wristwatch busy cursor. I expect in due course we will take the time to remove or change this. However, in the scheme of the other things that make more of a difference to the utility of the application, this will very likely have to wait for a while.
Fully agree with the OP on this.
Note that the old wristwatch cursor actually gives more specific feedback, namely that you’re waiting for Dorico itself, rather than Dorico waiting for some other process. Hey, at least it’s not a Windows hourglass cursor!
I would also add that when you click, for example, a time signature from the right menu—in Write mode—to place it onto some note, the cursor that is shown is actually from Windows XP…
I fully support Daniel’s decision to use a cross-platform UI framework for the app. One only has to look at the trouble that “another music notation program” has got itself into trying to support two different GUIs and the extra work that this involves.
It also means that Mac and PC users can help each other on this forum more easily, without the confusion of different keypresses and minor differences in implementation. “It’s not Command J, it’s CTRL J!” “That screenshot doesn’t look like what I’ve got.”
Given the direction of OS X’s interface scheme, I’m frankly glad it’s not all “flat white”. 
It’s also worth noting that the Spinning beachball has a specific meaning within OS X – that the frontmost process is not responding to OS events, which is a different thing from Dorico’s use of a wrist-watch cursor.