I firmly agree with the idea that if you're Microsoft, you need to go big or go home. That said, I love drop shadows. I'm sure that makes me a heathen.
Ha. I just finished a graphic design side gig where each image had to be super reductive and also in grayscale. I found a slight drop shadow came in handy to add a touch of depth even though the phrase 'drop shadow' was considered a dirty word when I went to school. I cringed at first use, but you know what? If it works, it works. And that's all that matters.
I never realized how difficult it was to design good web buttons until I tried. They aren't perfect, but I was pretty happy with our latest iteration of hubski buttons. It took some research.
I just posted this wherein Dave Wiskus suggests we are growing out of its utility. I'm not sure if I agree with him. I got my first chance to play with a windows phone the other day, and it feels a little flat. IMO just adding a bit of dropshadow makes it more like something you want to touch. Mine is on the right.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that my version is a success. I think the problems run deeper than drop shadows. b_b and I were just laughing about how funny it would be if you designed a keyboard this way. The 'e' might be so big you could slap it with your palm, and 'q' so small that you'd have to grab a stylus to tap it. :)
What confuses me the most is how little sense any of the tile sizes make. On a brand new Lumia 920 (supposedly the flagship WP8 phone) random things are huge, and other things are tiny. Every default Windows app seemed to have a Nokia duplicate thrown in as well.