Conceptually, this has been happening for years in video games. Time spent, actions taken, leveling up, etc have yielded changes throughout the game (making things available, hiding them, etc). I would imagine users respond positively to gradual changes in a UI, especially with removing repetitive elements like labels. That said, it would be fascinating to have some data behind that theory.

I made this in about 7 minutes as a joke response to http://gradientsmotherfucker.com/ - it wasn't intended to be serious :).