

I think the audio detail was so high because it helped to sell the realism of the game. Go back and play those early games and they don’t look nearly as good as my brain remembers, but the audio helped to fill in the lack of gravel looking texture and leaves tussling sounds in bushes that had two twigs on them.
I actually think regulation is how we got them, but not in a known bad way. Originally car headlights had little to no standards, but eventually people realized they’re important to safety and so testing started happening to ensure that headlights met a minimum safety rating. The problem is that the testing was done from the drivers seat, and based on light projection in front of the vehicle rather than taking into account other humans looking toward it. I’ve been a big proponent of LED lights that dim when stopped or slowing, and even halogen/ultra dim lights for city driving, and keeping LEDs for brights. LEDs have really made a lot of brights basically useless, but the brightness, and harshness of color temperature is absolutely detrimental to other drivers.