The paradox of minimalist websites is that they focus so much on minimising form in the name of letting the content shine, that the form ends up becoming the star of the show. At its most extreme, the content is merely an afterthought and serves as lorem ipsum to showcase the design.
We are bombarded by busy websites every day, yet minimalist sites are quite rare and thus grab our attention.
More often than not, the minimalist website is art in and of itself. I have nothing against this – I built one myself, after all. These sites can look awesome.
But beautiful as they might be, a slightly less minimal, yet still very functional and simple website would achieve the stated goal of the "let the content shine" minimalist more effectively, if that truly is their goal. The minimalism is the final distraction which prevents the content from truly shining.
If the minimalism is an end in itself, however – art – then instead of subtly implying that the reader is an unrefined and unimportant plebian, they should own the fact that it is they, the creator, who is the insufferably pretentious sophisticate.
Once they admit it, the pretense evaporates and the paradox loop closes.