Here's the thing, it's what the audience expects and it's lack leads to customer dissatisfaction and loss of what remains of your audience, therefore, it is what editors demand if they are going to hire you. That's the market reality whether old timers like it or not or how much we try to justify or rationalize our denial and curmudgeonliness. It may not offer "storytelling benefits" in our eyes, but it offers a level of verisimilitude that contemporary audiences demand/need for them to be able to suspend their disbelief and buy into the comic fantasy of super-heroes. Do enhances graphics improve actual gameplay over 8 bit graphics in video games-in some ways yes but not necessarily, but modern game consumers demand that level of realism in the graphics of their games. The same is true with modern game consumers. Same parallel with audience expectations in film compared to stop motion animation or some other practical effects in films and television. So while old school fans can't see the point of it (because it doesn't jibe with their sensibilities), there is a point and its rooted in the fact that time has passed and consumer expectations have changed. One may not personally agree with the changed standard, but that doesn't make them any less of a market reality. And it just means that some (older) consumers are out of step with the current market realities. Not saying one is better or worse, just that there is a reality that makes the new standards relevant to what level fo commercial success they can achieve.

-M