It’s because the art for these games was so good, it didn’t feel like the hardware was a limitation, more like it just had a particular style.
I’m currently playing Octopath Traveler 2 and it completely recreates this feeling, the art is beautiful and very pixelated.
Well, at least the Nintendo nostalgia is saving me money since I can't even look at fake pixelated graphics when I look for new indie games to play.
This is not the only way to do low budget graphics. Too bad very few creators realize it.