Too "modern" and I assume a site is using excessive amounts of tracking and playing other tricks with A/B testing different marketing tactics for services to try to milk their customers for all their worth.
Too crappy and I start to question if the site is actually secure and if they are putting enough money into IT... or if it's even the real site vs some kind of scam.
Both can be problems that erode trust, but they are different problems.
That said, you probably want to judge your bank's trustworthiness by it's rating with the Federal government, which is public info. Most banks (all but the biggest) have to outsource their online banking software and it's never as slick as the big guys'.
My hypothesis is it's because time and money investment was put into aesthetics at the expense of making the product or service better.
> the more obvious effort that has been put into a thing's aesthetics
I would consider that sign example to not be aesthetically pleasing. Maybe it’s more related to the ‘loudness’ of the aesthetics.
There are a lot of simple text blogs on HN which is a great aesthetic, some with lots of thought to keep them simple. Thats the counterpoint IMO.
If a thing looks and feels great, and has something worth making so, then there's no issue at all.
Uglier, less decorated things are expected to function better, with less effort "wasted" on goals unrelated to the problem being solved.
That, and they haven't yet fallen into the trap of giving their marketing department too much say.
This is how I'd explain the impression of trustworthiness. But of course this is only an impression and doesn't tell you anything about how the site actually operates.