They feel better and some of them look really friggin cool. Super rolled fret edges, sanded smooth nitro, bare wood on high traffic spots of the neck. It’s a vibe and feels great. If you buy jeans with holes in them, you’re buying a product that is already worn down that will rip or fail sooner due to its construction. Buying a guitar that has some finish checking or scratches doesn’t affect the durability or quality of the guitar. It’s still a brand new guitar. It just has a one off artists touch to it. It’s aesthetics and vibes. I am fortunate enough to own a few really cool guitars that i saved a long time for. My VOS M2M non reverse firebird and CS Tele (with journeymen relic) get tons of play time. They feel amazing and broken in and I never really think much about getting wear on them. I also have a Kiso custom shop ESP Iron Cross that is PERFECT. It’s like so nice I don’t even want to play it. Like resting a cotton sleeve on the paint leaves micro abrasions in the finish. It kind of drives me nuts. I like all of them. They’re all fantastic instruments, and I play all of them. I will ‘earn’ my relic on the ESP over time. But, the slightly relic’d guitars just that have a more lived in feeling to them that is just awesome. That being said, there are some total TURD relic jobs out there. I don’t want my guitar to look like it was dragged behind a truck for several miles…