I agree that raycast does have a fresh coat of paint that feels contemporary. Also, credit where due, they have done a great job of incorporating "the most useful thing" from a bunch of adjacently useful apps to alfred, like hyperkey, notes etc. As a result, I also feel like they lowered the activation threshold for a utility to start feeling useful. There's a bit of product voodoo there that I really appreciate.
So, I can see them really increasing the addressable size of the market for the Spotlight++ market. That said, for my taste, they are betting on the AI market more than I thought when I'd rather the launcher be this super resource friendly platform, which to me is where alfred shines, despite a slightly dated look.
p.s. idk if it will help you, but I updated the look with SF Pro text and some minor changes to spacing and it is already starting to look more modern to my eye.
Thanks for engaging.