First party switch games look decent even when docked on TVs (output is still lower resolution). They don't compare to PS5 or XSX graphics fidelity but they are still beautiful and playable.
Almost every other game is measured by the yardstick of how “realistic” the games artwork looks when playing, which means those types of games are forever craving more resources and graphics compute as it becomes available.
Nintendo uses bright colours, cartoon-like designs and sparse environments that require an order of magnitude less compute per frame but still look great. You can see this on a Switch if you play a game of Mario Kart 8 or Splatoon 3 then immediately launch a multi-platform game like Fortnite or Apex Legends that isn’t designing for limited resources. The difference is completely night and day.
As it happens, both of the latest Zelda games are IMHO the most beautiful open worlds created on any platform - likely because not focusing on photorealism allows for more freedom with the artwork itself.
That said, it speaks more to the point of designing for something other than reality simulation. If other games focused less on looking “real” they’d likely see vastly better performance on normal hardware.
You can have the same graphics, same controllers, just better performance, if you so desire.
You can play with Joycons, or when playing with other controllers (like an Xbox controller), you can have the UI changed to match. I used a 360 controller and left the UI stock.
And you can just turn off Switch-specific quality drops that are used to improve performance on the Switch hardware (at least one of which actually drops performance in emulation, see "LOD Improvement" mod), and/or use better quality emulated versions for an experience that is effectively a theoretical "Switch Pro".
I think in this specific instance, better isn't really that subjective.
I literally use a Switch controller over bluetooth with my switch emulator.
Design counts for so much more than triangles. A Series X game character has twenty times the polygon count of an Xbox 360 character yet somehow Johnny Silverhand looks like plastic-skinned garbage compared to Marcus Fenix.
The switch port likely struggles because it needs to be compatible with the other versions for cross-platform play, so it has to support the same resources (map layout/assets etc) that higher end machines do. There’s a limit to how much you can optimise something when you can’t fundamentally alter it and still keep your other customers happy.
I’ve only played BoTW (and I enjoyed it a lot), but tbh I can’t really remember any distinct environments except maybe the volcanic region, Kakariko village and the Korok forest. IMO the minimalism of the game world simply doesn’t give the designers enough “tools” to create impressive environments, at least compared to games like Horizon Zero Dawn or Red Dead Redemption 2, or even Skyrim.
https://i.redd.it/3sm84daxpai21.jpg
Even though the actual models are relatively low detail compared to something like HZD or RDR2 (which also look great).
If you took a random segment of the population and let them try the top games on a GameCube versus a PS2 in 2023, I think the GameCube would win handily.
How does constraining color and design schemes allow for more art freedom? There are much fewer options in art design for game developers on a hardware-constrained platform like the Switch as against PC or the mainstream consoles. You can make minimalist and cartoonish games on them as well, if you wish.
There have been a fair few non-photo-realistic games on PC and console but they’re not system sellers, and rarely move the needle.
For every Hades there’s pages on pages of indie games in Steam and the PS/Xbox marketplaces that hardly anyone has played or ever will again - many of which were well received by critics but just didn’t sell.
Look outside games for a moment, at the "Spider-verse" movies. Universally lauded for their splashy, comic-book style animation. Imagine those movies if the CGI was photorealistic… or if they were just straight-up filmed!
Fantasy and fantastical stories benefit from artistic flair. Even a game like Call of Duty, IMO, would benefit from some cel-shading and a more rotoscoped look. (I'm probably the only person who was disappointed to see that the next GTA game looks more like reality than GTA box art, which always should have been their stylistic lighthouse.)
I wanna do my own testing just to be completely sure, but assuming literally everyone else is correct, it really does speak to how much more noticeable low FPS is on larger screens.