There is also something to be said about the subtle lighting when actually shooting such shots. Doing it with CG is perhaps approachable, but there is a point of diminishing returns when more and more time is spent to close that last few percent of the "realism" gap.
Case in point, I took this long exposure photo in about 15 seconds, provided a bit of setup and specialized hardware. A CG version would have taken (I think) hours and still not quite have the same subtleties in lighting.
https://imgur.com/e4UWiqz
