I have to say, you make some interesting and valid points that I definitely hadn't really put much thought into such as your point on technicality vs stylized.
I'm glad you used Telltale's The Walking Dead as an example for two reasons. One, I'm a huge, HUGE fan of the walking dead show and game. The second is because, as much as i love walking dead, I was a fan of Telltale long before they did walking dead (The Back To The Future series they did was awesome!) and they are definitely a good example of style over technicality. However, their's a key reason that style worked. One word; comics.

As I'm sure you know The Walking Dead started as a comic by Robert Kirkman so while the style the game was done was awesome, they really emphasized & "cashed out" on (if you will) that "comic-y" feel because it would only make sense looking back on the brands origins.

Also, my example of getting the player to "move their ass" was kind of a joke and yeah the same feeling and effect could be achieved with lower graphics, but let me explain why I feel quality graphics is a good thing.

The reason I've been so curious about graphics and detail is because I have an idea for a Space game.

I know, I know, I know, doesn't sound too original, but the way I wanna go about it is a little different.

When I think of space I think of bright vivid colors, technicality, edginess, futuristic.

Your HUB (where you can buy, sell, upgrade, etc.) is one big Star Freighter or "Mothership", that you can walk around in 3rd person, explore, meet people.
You're an "ace" pilot among many and you will be deployed to many different planets to do missions and solve internal conflicts in order to gain ranks and such. Think along the lines of Halo 4 a bit. INFINITY (the starship) houses the TROJANS (fighters). same concept except instead of constant ground deployment, you will be a pilot.

Obviously being a pilot, you can choose to also go out and freely explore your current region and fight mercenary and enemy ships and this will also be how you get to your "target planet" when you're on a mission.but I don't want their to be a loading screen when coming into a planets atmosphere, i want the user to be able to fly down to the planets surface and the details get cleaner and cleaner as they come into the world (obviously would be controlled by LoD) and fly around and explore the world or go straight to their mission.

I don't want to continue rambling on about my idea because it only gets crazier and I know this may seem a bit over ambitious, but i don't expect this to be finished anytime soon. I'm thinking long term which is why I'm so worried about how the games textures and terrain(s) will come out on the other side.

Another thing I'm worried about is would A8 even be able to handle something like this even with the help of 3rd party programs and plugins?

Btw, I really appreciate the feedback and help Error!