For me it was encapsulated by doom 3 for the most part. Games with strong dynamic shadows like splinter cell chaos theory and stalker with a mix of shiny specular effects is timeless for me. When I go back to these games the shadows still feel as good as they did when they came out and the lighting perfectly crafting the mood. A lot of modern games now even though their fidelity on paper is much better just always feel extremely flat to me and don't pop out of the screen like they used to. It seems like they're missing contrast and UE5 seems to make this even worse where all the games using it just look like mush
Now because I really like high fidelity graphics where you can get lost in the world, but it's a specific tool for specific uses. Battlefield 1 really benefits from realistic graphics because the horror comes from the chaos and immersion. Assetto Corsa with CSP also benefits from it as immersion is critical for that game. However, in games that aren't simulations or reliant on immersion (90% of games), photorealism just makes your computer hotter than it should.