does a design need to look good before you judge whether it works?

i've noticed that i often critique my own work visually before thinking about whether the layout actually communicates what it needs to.

something feels slightly ugly, so i change the font

then the spacing

then the colors

then suddenly i've spent an hour polishing a section that was already perfectly understandable.

at the same time, i've seen designs that aren't particularly impressive visually but make the information incredibly easy to find.

when giving yourself a critique, do you separate usability from aesthetics completely, or do you treat them as one problem?

i'm interested in how people actually approach this rather than just the usual "form follows function" answer