I don't think the pursuit of photorealism is even good in today's landscape. Past a certain point you start getting very diminishing returns in exchange for more and more expensive, rare and power hungry hardware. For every tiny improvement on graphics you're essentially denying the game for more players and narrowing the playerbase to the few that have powerful PCs. Tragically, it is also discriminatory, since access to high-end hardware is not guaranteed all around the world, and many simply can't afford the hardware to enjoy modern games or don't even have it available. TL;DR By improving graphics you end up sacrificing way more than you gain.
I don't think the pursuit of photorealism is even good in today's landscape. Past a certain point you start getting very diminishing returns in exchange for more and more expensive, rare and power hungry hardware. For every tiny improvement on graphics you're essentially denying the game for more players and narrowing the playerbase to the few that have powerful PCs. Tragically, it is also discriminatory, since access to high-end hardware is not guaranteed all around the world, and many simply can't afford the hardware to enjoy modern games or don't even have it available.
TL;DR By improving graphics you end up sacrificing way more than you gain.