I'm not a big fan either but if a client pays me to do it, then I do it. The clean look in many of them is purely down to time contraints as usually trees, people and street level detail take the longest to get right so usually get tacked on as clients prob ask for the building and then go 'can we have some tree and peolpe' at the end to which your inner dude would say f*** off, but not a professional response so a simple solution to keep everyone happy is 2D fudge.