SSAO is cheap, doesn't work that well and looks terrible if overdone, as many games did 10-15 years ago. The simple workaround is to dial down the SSAO so that it's maybe weaker than ambient occlusion in reality, but also not noticeably wrong or overdone. Fortunately, the settings often allow that. Problem mostly solved!
It's a common pattern that newly possible (usually due to hardware) effects are overdone for the wow / up-to-date look effect.
> as many games did 10-15 years ago
Examples?
I didn't play much at the time because of the lack of games on Linux, but I've played some Far Cry 3 (from 2012) recently where I did turn down SSAO in the settings.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is the example that always comes to mind for me (2010, also available on Linux at the time).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBZ7NEyPUDw
https://frictionalgames.com/2014-01-tech-feature-ssao-and-te...