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I love CG, and am constantly blown away by what can be achieved with it.  I'm also not trying to refute its legitimacy as an art form.  There are just certain styles of 3D art that have more of a personal effect on me than others, and experiments in photorealism aren't one of them.

Well OK, that's fine.
But then again, you did stumble into a discussion here about how to achieve realism in a render. ;-)