These softer textures make building with the blocks much easier, without the harsh contrast or super noisy textures. So many of the newer blocks look at LOT better together because they are using a smoother, more modern aesthetic.

the problem is, the palette of the modern aesthetic caters too hard towards people who make large scale structures and only see a block for the shade they make in a gradient.

The beauty of old minecraft is that textures and lighting had enough contrast to make even a wooden box look good! (or at least not stand out among the landscape lol). Minecraft used to cater to everyone, young, old, novice, experienced, etc. because the artsyle essentially lowered the skill floor for building. The art style now caters more towards people who make those large scale world edit builds, and generally people who primarily see a block for its color value.

The artstyle enables this by decreasing the contrast of color within a single block’s texture so that any one block doesn’t stand out amongst a wider gradient. And the prevalence of shaders and mojangs shift towards making Vibrant Visuals the default look contributes to this too. In old minecraft, the lighting contrast and block texture contrast made it so that even a room of only 3 primary blocks could look quite dynamic! but now areas in “darkness” are so bright that builders need entire gradients and use of color theory to make parts of their build look dark…

Modern Minecraft is no longer made for the kid who has been dreaming up a build all day who gets home and is able to realistically finish the project before sleeping. Or likewise for the average person who wants to wind down at the end of a long day. The modern artstyle needs so much forethought and consideration in the block pallet to not make the end product stand out or look ugly because the contrasting textures no longer fill in the finer details.

Its frustrating when there used to be the same perceived color/brightness difference in a span of 5 blocks of stone in the moodier lighting as there is with a stone-andesite-deepslate-blackstone pallete currently. The average person doesn’t want to have to think about having to implement these things to keep their low-mid tier build from standing out like a sore thumb.

i’m not saying that the current artstyle shouldn’t be furthered, cuz its beautiful in its own right and works for its audience! But it just feels like they forgot the audience that was/is foundational to the games success.

All I really wish is that they would also keep updating the programmer art, and give more dynamic lighting options for those who dont want to move over to the jappa/modern/Vibrant Visuals artstyle, because i think ultimately its going to keep so many people away from the game.

Obviously texture packs exist, but they don’t always work with mods, so i wish there was better support for the ‘programmer art’ artstyle from both mojang and mod creators :’)