Old games just have so much aura. They have a certain je ne sais quoi

[inyerta]

Humanity is rapidly declining due to psyop shadow wars waged via culture by boomers that will never have to live with the subhuman populace they've created.
As such, beauty in all its forms is dying. Art no longer contains beauty or consistency, the disturbed mind of the average modern person cannot tolerate it. All artforms will die in your lifetime

I unironically believe it has to do with graphic fidelity. The closer graphics get to real life the more glaring are their shortcomings.

Up to the ps2 era more or less, they had to cut corners and optimize so much that the presented world becomes a clear "representation of" instead of an attempt at perfect recreation.

The idea of it being a representation makes a clear distinction, the player knows it is perceiving a mock up of sorts, and give ups trying to equate it to reality, this allows for free interpretation were the player's imagination fills the gap, similarly, for the devs, this allow freedom of expression, whether deliberate or unconscious, they have to make decisions which could be said result in accidental art sometimes.

In summary, the inability to reach high fidelity forced both the devs and players to use their imagination more.