That depends on how you "code" your world. Sure, individual sprites aren't pretty, but then again it's supposed to be industrial.
Regardless, you can optimize your builds for symmetry or some other aesthetic goal and come up with some really beautiful designs. Though just like real world programming, lack of planning will result in spaghetti code.
Alrighty, what design philosophy would you apply to get millions of animated, individual objects to interact with an astonishingly high and constant tick rate on everything down to absolutely shitbox-laptops? Because that is what Factorio does!
Wow people are missing the forest for the trees. I wasn't talking about resolution or texture quality, it's the colour choices that are inherently ugly.
Regardless, you can optimize your builds for symmetry or some other aesthetic goal and come up with some really beautiful designs. Though just like real world programming, lack of planning will result in spaghetti code.