One thing I'm seeing that's being left out of the discussion: the reason the faces in the 2010's lose detail is because they're easier to animate.
When you're churning out isekai clone no. 6000 at your animation sweat shop the last thing you want is to keep track of the shading on every last strand of hair.
It does have upsides tho, faces generally are more expressive the easier they are to animate
One thing I'm seeing that's being left out of the discussion: the reason the faces in the 2010's lose detail is because they're easier to animate.
When you're churning out isekai clone no. 6000 at your animation sweat shop the last thing you want is to keep track of the shading on every last strand of hair.
It does have upsides tho, faces generally are more expressive the easier they are to animate