I don't understand the love for thick pixels. The effect clearly reflects the resource constraints of the platform. Is there anything here beyond nostalgia?
It might have originated from specific technical constraints, but it's a unique art style. Some people will like it, other people won't. Nostalgia might be a factor in its popularity, but people without nostalgia can (and do) fall in love with it.
It's akin to falling in love with brutalist architecture IMO.
The Game Boy is a bit of a different story, but its pixels weren’t as chunky because they had significant separating lines, and the long LCD afterglow blurred anything in motion, further supported by its low contrast. It’s still quite difficult to accurately emulate the appearance of the real Game Boy screen on modern displays.