>>105588620
Notice how behind the Text area behind the "MSN.com" text there's a white tint.

Microsoft just knew how to design UI better.

>>105588628
You can certainly get a lot of things done with custom icons and custom launchers.

Problem is the UI libraries provided by google are not really designed for this.
Google went all in the material design thing and only recently announced version 3.
https://m3.material.io/