>>7574532
>>7574745

The point is to appeal to people who aren't trying for escapism but rather for self-insert purposes.

Crazy designs = escapism (less like reality) = appeals more to social outcasts
More grounded = distraction "what if things were different" fantasizing = appeals more to people who have some gripes with their place in life but are still integraed

This is also why isekai became big, it's "hey normal dude, what if you got hit by a truck like you keep wishing for but it instead gave you a better life!?"

Older anime required buyin from the viewer.

Of course this wasn't always the case. A lot of 70s and 80s anime had hair that was either more tame or, for some of the more-wild stuff, supposed to mirror the Big Hair of back then. City Hunter is an easy example of the grounded ones, and the Dominion Tank Police Catgirls for the Big Hair.
I have a hunch this might actually have to do with the amount of acceptable slapstick but I really have no idea. Lodoss has the huge pauldrons, so does Tenchi and Slayers. But Lodoss is fully serious with very down to earth hair, while Tenchi and Slayers have plenty of comedy. It's something specific to the hair...

>>7574386
This also tends to be the same among coom artists/OC artists. The dude is either a sanitized self-insert of the artist or a generic dude for the audience to insert as. Or generic/faceless to not take focus away from the girl.

There, now you have more detailed ways to express your gripes.

>>7578060
>>7578534
picrel?