What you call graphics. I call art direction.
And yes the art direction has contributed to my distaste of the modern JRPG. Mostly from Square Enix's side of the fence.
When everyone looks like freakish, genetically engineered, J-Pop stars, I have a slight disinterest in the fantasy at hand, that is a very narrow taste you're gunning for there. This trend began with Final Fantasy 10 and I have stayed clear of the series on that merit alone. The prior cast of heroes in the games were cartoonish enough to represent anyone with enough distancing from proper human form. With nine easily pulling ahead for the top marks in character variations and style, seven a worthy second and the others after keeping to a more uniformly human cast, but still with the added benefits of low graphic quality to allow the players mind to form their own interpretations.
These current mutations fall so hard into the uncanny valley It disturbs me. Plus they're badly written, but you asked about 'graphics'.
Graphics alone do not make it bad, it's how they've used the graphics, admittedly for some truly stunning cut-scenes and game environments, but the character art and the story problems stem alot deeper than something so shallow.
A return to a more cartoonish, anime style would do them some good, if you're going to write, unrealistic characters, the characters need to be unrealistic enough to merit those choices. Since no one in Square Enix seems to be able to write a believable human being without going off into existential crisis land every 5 minutes, the art direction they've chosen does them no credit.
Writing an anime story and using very near human looking models, doesn't work. At least not without decent adaptation.
Look at the 'Tales of' games for worthy examples. They know their storylines are pure otaku bait, and embrace that style wholely with cell shaded 3D models and anime cutscenes. And it works for what they set out to accomplish.