Modern structures value only functionality, not beauty. That's not wrong, it's just the result of a fiat system. It is not possible to spend fifty years to make a baroque building, if the costs are going to quintuple by the end of the period.
Discussion
You are correct about the fiat. But the modern architecture is not about function only.
The brazillian cathedral of BrasÃlia is an exemplo of that.
Modernism is more about breaking with old cultures to creat the new trend.
My point is that as bad as some buildings from the modernist wave may look, it also is contemporary with the more affordable housing. (not even bringing the gvrnt subsides into this argument)
Correct. They want to break the old model, creating a new trend. The problem is that this new trend is not always positive. Dadaism, for example, is a new trend that doesn't have any kind of beauty (at least, for me and for most people). If we analyze it well, the new trends follow a concept of ease and speed. This is due to the fiat world. When incentives are broken, the outcome is never good.