What if it's targeted at kids/teens/young people and is lightweight "casual" playing experience? Wouldn't this look be preferred?

Sometimes ultra-realism takes the fun nature out of things.

Simpsons and South Park could easily use high tech graphics but the simple nature of it all is what makes it appealing . Same with Minecraft or even Zelda.

It's also easy to build expansive worlds with breakable objects that don't require tons of physics and special effects to make something like a box exploding look realistic.