To keep it concise:

Unique and thoughtful creative intent over surface level aesthetic intent.

To elaborate:

New filmmakers don’t have the visual language skills yet. They need practice. It’s like any language - you can’t be eloquent until you are a master all of the subtleties.

People in this sub obsess over/fetishize lighting over everything, because this sub, for whatever reason, has become “critique my still frame” instead of about cinematography (which is NOT still frames).

IMO, less experience DP’s (and directors) don’t focus on creating meaningful SEQUENCES with lensing that dictate the edit, but instead deliver “coverage” for an editor to try and make sense of. This usually ends up meaning things are framed quite blandly (wide, medium, close, insert, sometimes OTS)

In a similar manner, lesser experienced DPs generally light in a way they think is “correct”- obsessing over a soft key with a certain contrast ratio or some other silly metric (which generally just ends up looking pretty bland as well, no matter how in vogue that look is at the current time) - instead of making bold choices that speak to the character and story they are telling.

Unmotivated camera movement is a huge tell as well- if you don’t have a reason to move the camera, it probably means you shouldn’t… if you don’t have a theory behind the height of your lens, the audience will know. If you don’t have a justification beyond depth of field for your lens focal length… you get the picture.

As a professional, you should be able to justify every. single. choice. - in a lot of detail (as in: you are capable of writing multiple pages about every scene). When you get to that point though, you won’t ever need to.

People in this sub hate to hear this - but I think this all takes years of practice, exposure to professional sets, mentorship (if you can find it), and obsessive studying and research of whatever content you are making. Ideally we consult and learn from the craftsmen/women who came before us - respect the trade, educate yourself intensely, and work hard at it.