To expand on this: I think the heavier blend can certainly look good/interesting, for certain hand picked shots (the aforementioned painterly look). But most of the time, the textures just look wrong to me, all blended and rounded off.
However, I grew up in this game’s time. So, those bocky textures have a visual identity for me, with certain detail and aesthetic. Its like how the PC version of MGS1 doesn’t look right, with the texture smoothing. Someone much younger, probably loves the smoothing.
I do appreciate certain enhancements like PGPX, which increases the rendering precision on 3D models (so that they look more “filled out”) and also fixes things so that straight lines render straight, instead of jagged. And I’m also a fan of tasteful bloom, AA, etc. But PS1 game texture detail, is in those blocks. You gotta tread lightly, with that.