NASA's Blue Marble 2012 + ESO's "Galaxies" = 185 million pixels of WOW

I understand your sentiment if these images were meant as "portraits", but it seems their intent was to be informative of the details and content in the same way that most bodies of water aren't a solid, bright, pasty blue but it helps to identify them on a map or globe that way.

Viewing celestial bodies/events with the naked eye (or as they would be if we could) can certainly be compelling but I thinks it's only pragmatic to acknowledge that even the outer planets only hold a passing interest to the public at large in an unaltered view.

It must be appreciated that we can capture these views at all, and with such detail!