I think everyone is forgetting what graphics are for. They're supposed to be for the stuff you're actually doing, not the dressing around it. I don't care if the little box that is the ion for my program is not shinny or has a some glassy look to it - I care if the movie I'm watching, or the game I'm playing, is doing so smoothly with a fantastic quality. I'm not looking at that most of the time. It's a distraction.
But you know what - times change. Things we used to think were amazing, we start to think are tired and boring and eventually look back and can't figure out why we ever thought that was a good thing. I could remember several years ago how everyone wanted everything to be gloss black. Not just the icons on their desktop screen, but their monitor screen, the monitor bezel, the PC case - gloss was a huge thing a few years ago. Now, few people seemed interested in glossy towers, or glossy screens, because they don't like having fingerprints to clean all the time. When the Xbox 360 and PS3 launched they were glossy because so many people liked it that way. Now at the end of their life cycle, they've gone almost completely matte. I'm sure in five or ten years, the pendulum will swing back. There's no point getting riled up about it. It's a natural effect of aging; what was in when you were ten is not going to be that way when you're 20, is going to change again by the time you're 30, and will change again by the time you're 40. After that you'll probably hardly notice anymore and not care either way.