Restraint makes hierarchy easier to perceive. The useful question is not whether the idea sounds persuasive. It is whether it helps someone understand the work, make a decision, or complete a task with less friction.
What is happening
Borders, shadows, labels, gradients, and animations each ask for attention. When all of them appear together, none of them can explain priority.
This tends to become visible at the boundary between the organization and the person encountering it for the first time. Internal familiarity hides effort that remains obvious to a customer, reader, applicant, or collaborator.
A practical response
Start with white space, type, alignment, and image scale. Add a visual device only when it clarifies a relationship or interaction.
The aim is a smaller, clearer system: one source for the record, one visible hierarchy, and one next action that behaves as expected. That approach improves the immediate page and makes later application or database work easier to add without rebuilding the public surface.