Perhaps I can share a different perspective. I like unrestored ruins. I perceive a restoration as admixture of modern techniques and fresh touch onto an old and genuine core, and a recreation as a modern construction made to look old. When I explore those without having noticed or been forewarned about their true origins I feel cheated. When I do notice or someone tells me they really are new, I still feel they are inauthentic.

I suppose I expect to see not just how people lived in the past, but also to see the effect that time has had on what they made. I like looking at a fragment of a wall and contemplate the amount of time that separates me from the folks who put it up. Knowledge that the wall was built in my lifetime just completely ruins it for me (no pun intended).

That said, I did see some great recreations and I learnt much more about the past from them than I had from ruins. Some folks do impressive amount of research about what life used to be like and recreations are probably the best way for them to share what they learnt.