I've seen this take too many times. CGI can have the same level of artisanship as practical effects, you just need to put in the work. The Lord of the Rings tri

I've seen this take too many times. CGI can have the same level of artisanship as practical effects, you just need to put in the work. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a great example: Weta Digital was part of the entire filmmaking process, worked extremely closely with the art department, and was part of the same entity that made most of the props and practical effects. The digital effects in the trilogy hold up, even the ones that look a little janky today, not because of some amazing rendering software, but because they were integrated into the vision of the films from day 1. I think this can be observed to a lesser extent on many more recent movies with strong vision behind them. For example, Sony's Amazing Spider-Man movies had generally generic CGI, but the Spiderman model and sequences were phenomenal. The studio and effects shops had a really strong idea about how Spidey should feel and move, and that drove his visualization. tl;dr it's not the effects, it's the creative bankruptcy.