That's a very strange comparison. How often do you look closely at the artwork for an album? If you're spending countless hours staring at a single album cover, you probably have some issues.

I don't know if you've bought an LP before, but many of them have what's called "liner notes," which are long textual notes about the album's contents. If you shrink these down to 1/4 of their size, they are almost impossible to read. (I have several jazz CDs which reproduce the original LP covers at a smaller size, and they're terrible to try to read.) Even if it weren't for liner notes, though, there's a difference between large album art and small. Many LPs have elaborate, detailed artwork that loses a lot by being shrunk down.