There's no reason for it to be as ugly and huge as an aircraft emergency exit -- it's certainly possible to make a beautiful door handle that can detect if that the regular/electronic door opening system isn't working and then activate an alternate system to open the door.

As detailed in this comment, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14188425 , the problem isn't the visibility of the handle, it's that speaker-grill Bowden cable release was, afaict, never meant as an emergency mechanism, it was simply meant for service/maintenance tasks.