If you have demo meetings that matter, you likely have a designer, in that case the UI won't be ugly.

Demo meetings that matter, now that's an anti-pattern if I've ever heard one. Only UI work makes for a snazzy demo, anything else will bore stakeholders to tears (and you of course need stakeholders if the meeting matters). The backend can be completely mocked out and stakeholders wouldn't even realize. All demos do is bely progress and make milestones seem closer or farther away than reality. The only "demo" that matters is the actual product launch.

demo meeting matters for several things:

- reassuring the people that pay the bill

- get PR feedback

- give a concrete objective with a deadline to the team

But like a lot of things, it's not useful for what most people think it's useful.

All of those things can be done through other mechanisms without distracting engineers with a dog and pony show.