Exactly - and painting is a fairly cheap way to make the buildings more “cheerful”. Quite common in the late 90’s and 00’s
Yeah, it's gaudy. If you want cheery that everyone agrees on except architects and city planners, you go with detailed neoclassical-ish brick buildings. Beautiful, homey, charming, relaxing. Natural materials and colors with time tested shapes. There's not a person in the world who sees a picture of Edinburgh and doesn't say aww. But it's expensive, so screw it!