Would be interesting to know how big a part design actually played up to the early '60s.  Most radios from the '40s and '50s looked similar, probably for practical reasons. Going further back from there, the appearances start to diverge again.

I'll forgive Philips a few decades of awful design for doing the 930A in 1931:

Oh yes...Nice one. They did a few attempts back in the thirties. And so did B&O -think about the Hyperbo 5 RG. And the Beolit 39.

But then came the 40's and 50's -where you couldn't tell the difference between radios from different companies -they were all ugly.
Then -in the 60's B&O decided to use architects -and an industrial designer (Jacob Jensen) -and we all know the sequel 🙂

The japanese has been very consistent since the sixties (when you look at their receivers/amplifiers) - most of their devices all look like each other; designed by engineers. A box with an aluminum plate on the front -and lots of buttons.

"Well -in recent years they have tried to do some designing again..."

I like how some of the new Philips radios look but they lack the features I want like AM(MW) or sortwave.

I really got into radio last year and the selection is poor these days... I started off with a Tangent Cinque(over priced and underperforming but looks great lol) and this year I got a Sony shortwave and while it works well, its made in Japan, and is exceptionally well built for its price range its not a table top radio.