Give users what they actually want, not what they say they want.
In many cases, the more you try to compete, the less competitive you actually are.
Twitter, for all its good, is a hate amplifier.
We are all human, and caring about the way something looks and feels does not mean we're superficial--it means we're human. We don't need to exploit sex to recognize that a certain amount of sexiness is both pleasurable and natural.
Just make people better at something they want to be better at.
Upgrade your user, not your product. Value is less about the stuff and more about the stuff the stuff enables. Don't build better cameras - build better photographers.