I have been trying to figure out why that pool design bothered me and someone in that thread suggested LIMINAL SPACE which led me down an interesting wormhole.

Liminal spaces become creepy with the absence of the amount of people or light we associate with them.

your brain has given that space a context and when it doesn't adhere to that context it warns you. In architecture, Liminal spaces are defined as "the physical spaces between one destination and the next." Common examples of such spaces include hallways, airports, and streets.

In anthropology, Liminality is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the rite is complete.

It's the FEELINGS that are created when a particular design is interacted with outside of its intended context.