>Visual effects went through this same development issues as the industry matured
The industry haven't matured except until a certain point. Then it declined. Modern visual effects are worse than practical effects in their heyday. They are also worse done than 3D effects in their tasteful early days (like Jurassic Park).
I think this has more to do with the cutthroat business than the technology involved. It seems the tech has improved, but the quality has suffered due to pressure to just fling shit out the door using the least amount of money to generate the most amount of profit. They are squeezing every penny dry. It seems to me the person you're responding to still has a valid point.
Are you sure this is not just a case of good VX has hard to spot? And you only notice the bad/cheap examples.
It's a case of the biggest blockbusters, with the biggest budgets, like the MCU movies or Fast and Furious and such, looking like crap vfx wise. Same for movies at every level.
VFX can be more subtle (e.g. how Fincher uses it), but it's rare. The industry (which is separate from the technology) didn't mature, it enabled crappy effects to dominate.
> with the biggest budgets, like the MCU movies or Fast and Furious
Oh, I hundred percent believe it. But did they spend the money on the vfx?
For example 1917 or Nolan movies I think have great VFX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bRZbsk_wuA (last part)
CGI animals are still universally awful.