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The most successful non-tech task management implementation I've seen was actually just a heavily customized Airtable base with a simple form interface for employees. It cost almost nothing to set up and maintain, had exactly the fields needed for that specific business, and was easy enough that everyone from the receptionist to the CEO could use it. I'm skeptical there's a big enough market for a new product when free/low-cost customizable tools already exist that can be tailored to each business's needs.

I'm actually building something in this space, and after 50+ customer interviews, I've found the real problem isn't simplicity - it's contextual relevance. Office managers don't use the same vocabulary as developers. They don't think in terms of 'sprints' or 'story points' - they think in terms of deadlines, assignments, and status updates. The opportunity is in creating domain-specific versions of task management that use the language and workflow patterns of specific industries, not just making a simpler version of Asana.

I think you're conflating feature bloat with poor UX design. ClickUp has a ton of features but presents a relatively clean interface and lets you hide what you don't need. The real opportunity isn't removing features but creating better onboarding and interfaces for the features that matter. Our non-profit uses Monday.com successfully across staff with varying tech skills by careful template design and permission settings. I'm not convinced a new platform is needed versus better implementation services for existing ones.