Disagree. I think it genuinely looks significantly worse: it's so thoroughly brown, and the blocky level design looks like a zillion super mario clones. That seems like a bigger factor to me; yes, it matters that you can't tell what's going on looking at the gameplay, but that would be much less of an issue if it looked good/interesting.

Consider indie titles like Minecraft and PUBG taking off with completely ripped off assets and game ideas because they made a great version of an existing concept. Minecraft had the visual style of a 2005 bargain bin game and PUBG is the blandest of bland models and art design coupled with a good implementation of their earlier mod. You don't need to be all that original, gameplay or art style wise, to make a game successful.

I don't think this particular art style was all that common on the PS4 or Xbox One. There was a lot wrong with the way they presented and marketed the game, but I don't think the art style is that much of a problem.