What ever happened to “Gameplay and story is more important than looks and graphics?”
I was going through games and stuff on this forum and I see people saying crap about how some games look. . . I was kind of taken aback by this.
Expectations have changed from the consumer’s point of view. Just one of those things we all have to accept. But you can get around it in a number of different ways. The one I find most useful is to not attempt to tackle something that is blatently outside the scope of you artistic skills. Doing so, simply hurts immersion, speaking from and artsy perspective. I recommend studying a style of game where the art aspect is within reach therefore it will not harm the gameplay. Sounds counter to your expectations; gameplay first then art, but I’d definitely keep it in mind.
Are you a teacher? 
Nope. Just some of my general opinions. Hopefully it got you thinking about a gamedev’s problems from some other directions.
Everybody loves beautiful things. Feedback and criticism from other people will helps improvement. A good gameplay games wont die easily. They’ll get modded like Falcon4, 7.62, Homeworld, etc.
Most experimental gameplay will have weird/artistic graphics/representation because mimicking “reality” visually are time consuming.
Weird/artistic games graphics don’t have to be ugly. How to know its ugly? Ask around. If 90% said that that graphics are ugly, there are high probability that they are correct.