It reminds me of how 'we' like statues made to look like Roman statues - after the paint has faded.

I recently watched a documentary on old regal ships and the paint jobs were really vulgar by modern standards, with a lot of random colors all over the place. Obviously the rare and expensive colors were status symbols, and didn't feel tacky and tasteless like it would today.

So, like comics from the 50-80s with weird palletes.

Apparently when (I believe it was) the Sistine Chapel frescoes were restored in the 80s, there was outrage because the colors looked garish and "like a comic book". But that's how Michelangelo painted them originally; the subtle coloration that people appreciated was actually the result of accumulated dirt, grime, and candle wax over the centuries.

There's no one right way to enjoy things, just as there's no accounting for taste :)

Sharp pixels have always been around too. Even in 1982 there was the pc-98's 640x400 crt monitor that would clearly render dithers -- which its games still chose to use all over, even when they got 16 colors. An lcd doesn't do much worse, and in fact those city nightscapes with pinpoint stars and lights look fantastic on modern displays.