Personally, as a consumer who could care less about who produced which game, the original Secret of Monkey Island - with all its pixel art glory - was a relatively hard game, like many of the games of the era, and was comparatively less enjoyable to me as a 80s/90s kid than the later Curse of Monkey Island, which had a more modern art style and much more interesting mechanics (IMHO) than just aimlessly clicking everywhere until you eventually found out the only way to move forward was to precisely time giving the bad guy a wedgie or whatever. I've also played other games with various degrees of pixelatedness, with later ones like Sam & Max and Indiana Jones being more enjoyable to me than older ones like the original Maniac Mansion, so I generally associate art style modernization in this particular genre as a good thing.
But ironically, I feel the opposite way about the Pokemon franchise, which has gone through a similar progression, with a change in art style towards a more slick art style along with a barrage of new game mechanics that I personally didn't really care so much for.
I think that ultimately people just want to consume more content that is similar to what they are already used to. It's why, I also think, bands w/ distinctly recognizable style like the Red Hot Chili Peppers did so well. The vitriol does seem completely unnecessary, though, I agree.
But ironically, I feel the opposite way about the Pokemon franchise, which has gone through a similar progression, with a change in art style towards a more slick art style along with a barrage of new game mechanics that I personally didn't really care so much for.
I think that ultimately people just want to consume more content that is similar to what they are already used to. It's why, I also think, bands w/ distinctly recognizable style like the Red Hot Chili Peppers did so well. The vitriol does seem completely unnecessary, though, I agree.