Agreed - it really looks like hand drawn art that's been turned into "pixel art" in some kind of paint by numbers fashion. Just using the original hand drawn concept art probably would have looked better, but that doesn't mean that pixel art in general is a bad idea.

Look at Stardew Valley for an example of a very popular game that's all pixel art. I don't see any reviews of that saying that it looks "pixelated" or "not getting" the art style. And it's not like Stardew even has amazing pixel art, it's just decent enough.