This year's breakouts like 'Project Hail Mary' and 'Obsession' were made by filmmakers who sweated. While CG-stuffed franchise disappointments such as 'Supergirl,' 'Moana,' and 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' looked lazy.
Practical effects generally need to be planned before filming and that planning seems to both force restraint on the director and planning of the shot, which forces the director to decide on the visuals early in the process.
Practical effects also generally helps the actors give better performances since there are more visual cues informing emotional states.
There is also an uncanny valley that CGI can still fall in.
I agree that audiences likely don’t care about the difficulty of the shot, but it seems to affect how audiences receive the output.
The inputs affect the outputs.
Practical effects generally need to be planned before filming and that planning seems to both force restraint on the director and planning of the shot, which forces the director to decide on the visuals early in the process.
Practical effects also generally helps the actors give better performances since there are more visual cues informing emotional states.
There is also an uncanny valley that CGI can still fall in.
I agree that audiences likely don’t care about the difficulty of the shot, but it seems to affect how audiences receive the output.