I think game grafix need to be smooth and consistent.
It is not so important how high the resolution of texture is, or if a building is blocky.
But It should not stick out of the rest of the scene!
Same with the Treeshadows, if everything casts shadows,
it would stick out if they are missing an trees. But If they are there, and not fully correct, the player will
not notice while concentrating on the gameplay.
For me the grafical part is not the main element.
It only serves to create a certain athmosphere, together with the sound, music, story
and gameplay.

Even If you have an ugly Artwork: if this is consistantly ugly, it wont harras the player
as he gets used to it, and concentrate on the gameplay.

Same with shaders,
I dont want to use them unless really required (like the terrainshader, that I need).
After a while the shader will not add much to the gameplay,
but it will reduce it a lot : lowering the Framerate.
Now some people here implement shaders at any cost, if the framerate drop they either
state hilarious minnimum requirements for the game,
or reduce the content in the gameworld (models, Blocks) to increase the framerate it.
Why not kick out the shader in this case?