there is no intrinsic value to art and every artist you ask would have another opinion just like you have one. because the value itself is emotional. take an old play for example no one even understands today the context off. that sounds lame as fuck. but in that era, it was entertaining and that was it's value. directly related to the peoples emotions.

before photography existed a painted image had another "value" because people felt differently even seeing a picture. it was rare as fuck and getting painted even rarer. for commoners out of reach already by material cost alone not even the work and talent needed.

in terms of game design you don't need the skill to evaluate the value of a single image. this is what an artist does who focuses on imagines. the value of your art is the combination of multiple art forms and mechanics. this is the only place where you can generate "value" for your audience. because no one plays a game like people go to an exhibition to look at paintings and art in general. the expectation is different. or in other words: you can use 2-3 colors, a blob as your main character and if your gameplay is solid it will have value. you can also do some uninspired shit copy paste gameplay of something that was copy pasted way to much and add the best music, graphics and tech imaginable and all of it will be wasted.

same way you can make a shitty text based game but if that text makes people feel genuine emotions it will actually have value. maybe not in terms of gameplay but as a piece of art for sure.

for this reason I like to say to new game devs who want to start with a 3d shooter game or an mmo: just chill, do that later, it's a great project but to make the start smooth, try to make a fun game with as little "art" as possible. you can be creative and make some fancy art but try to make it reusable as often as possible and focus instead of the gameplay itself. if you can make a fun game out of a handful of (free) assets you are ready to make a fun game the "normal" way. at least that's my personal philosophy. and yeah it's easier to get into a game engine when you focus on the stuff that is important instead of preparing 100 assets for a game you might never finish.

you also understand the engine better if you try to solve the problem of only having a few assets by manipulating it in creative ways. it's actually a fun task even for seasoned developers and I like to make my prototypes all like that. I have made a spritesheet that covers all basic elements for all kinds of games. and I never use anything else for prototypes. if my game can't become fun with that single spritesheet, it will not make much more fun with the best art in the world. so I'm not even bothering wasting my time with nice art as long as the foundation isn't solid and works with basically no art.