They may actually be more terrifying, at least in certain contexts. Everyone knows what a scaly monster with steak knives hanging out of its mouth is, and could quickly spot and avoid the danger if you actually encountered it. The more modern reconstructions with signifigant feathering and teeth covered by lips look much different, and less obviously predatory, it would be awful to run into one and think haha funny herbivore, then be eaten.

This all works on the hypothetical of time travel or a jurassic park scenario, where the fear is something irl. The scaly dinosaurs are much more of a movie monster.