90s Memes

That sounds like nostalgia speaking. Don't get me wrong, I think games between 2015-2020 are still visually pleasing, but textures and lighting have made some big strides recently. It's a subjective matter, obviously.

The visual eye candy doesn't come without a cost though, games are much harder to run with hardware made the same year they're released, but computationally expensive particles and lighting are no joke. Like you said, they can feel like they run like shit if you can't afford to drop a couple thousand on new parts.