I think it’s kind of natural for artists to demand higher standards than is truly necessary, even for discerning audiences. Something that many people are unaware of is that even for classical music, it’s standard practice to do multiple takes on a given piece and the stitch together the best parts in editing. However, I think I speak for a lot of fans when I say live recordings are just as good if not better than these Frankenstein recordings, so why bother going to all that trouble?
A lot of design work is like that. I'm willing to believe we sometimes notice things at a subconscious level but do we actually benefit from the 10 million (or whatever) fonts in existence or from people agonizing for days over the most subtle difference in colors you'll be viewing on a non-color corrected monitor.
