It depends of many factors, but there is one in charge of balance these two fields. Who is playing that role in your company? How do you (as a team) deal with this issue?
Tactics, experience, thought...
I believe this can be reframed more productively, since:
a) page speed is a so-called hygene factor, i.e. there's a limit after which users get frustrated, and below which they don't think about it too much. Say, around 1-2 seconds for a page/component load, on average (depends on specific context of course).
b) UI "attractiveness" cannot be measured objectively, let alone numerically (alright, a questionnaire, but then all will depend on the exact wording), while speed is a very concrete parameter.
c) speed vs "attractiveness", whatever that means, is not necessarily a dychotomy - you can have a very usable and eye-pleasing interface without the speed penalty.
So it's rather two questions in one, and they are more orthogonal than competing:
- how do I ensure the product's speed is below the threshold that makes it annoying?
- can I make UI easy to use and pleasant to look at without making the backend much more complex and processing-hungry?
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