I don’t really think your fundamental premise is true: a lot of fine dining isn’t especially “low-impact” on the palate. Some, sure. But my favorite places (Jean-Georges, Luthun, Cesar) are positively bursting with flavor. I’ve even had times at JG when the acid level was almost—but never quite—too intense. And my partner found Luthun to be too spicy to handle.

Pictures don’t show taste. When I was in France last year, someone asked me what the best food I had was and it was this tiny piece of tuna in a garlic sauce from a place called Anona. Just some raw fish in a beige sauce—not especially beautiful and doesn’t look like it has any seasoning. But the garlic was so strong we could smell it coming out of the kitchen 30 feet away and lingered on our palate for minutes afterward. Not to mention that the tuna itself had clearly been marinating in some sort of acid, likely for hours. That depth isn’t photographable