I find your opinion very subjective. In my experience, I remember that in 2013-2014 when i switched from MBA to retina MBP i experienced the wow effect. But recently MBP fall off and screen got broken. Now using 720p 20” monitor and have not noticed significant difference. Mostly programming, as in reading and writing text, be it in text editor or shell. It is as good as before. Less screen estate, right, it does not affect my workflow much.