I was going to attempt to quote all these replies, but, yeah, that's not happening .
After reading through all of the replies though, I can say that I did kind of leave out a lot of other aspects of quest designing from my OP. My first post was focused on my observations of the way people respond to screenshots in general, assuming they have no knowledge of how the quest plays. So, I was only thinking of how stuff looked. However, as this thread has unfolded into a full fledged discussion about this (as it is something we have all experienced on some level) I can see that I overlooked some pretty crucial aspects.
If you are going to create something, of course there is going to be an obsession to some degree with it. That's how stuff gets done. You pour over it. You redo it. You think about it, you scrap it, and do it all again. Until you are happy with it. These are steps in the creative process. However, if you are never happy with it, it never gets done. I agree with the sentiment that a quest should be made to the author's liking, and if any accolades are gained, it is consequential. But, you should also strive to make a quest that isn't overly obtuse, or downright broken, fundamentally, or visually.
The type of obsession with perfection I was initially referring to, beyond just graphics, was the way the community can react to an author sharing their work. It is easy to apply your own values, and standards, and preferences to it. It is easy to post some off the cuff remark about someone else's work, and may not even mean it to be hurtful, but I'd wager a fair amount of us are pretty sensitive to some degree, and definitely take pride in our work, so those little things can get to all of us. It brings down morale, in some ways. But, I digress.
There were a lot of really good points made in this thread. I feel better having read all everyone has said so far about it, cause I do see that there is a common goal of making something good for us as the developer, but also something that others will enjoy. Constructive criticism based on playing a quest is good. It's called QA. Nit-picking based on screenshots isn't. We just have to stop expecting so much from each other in the visual department. There's nothing wrong with wanting to make good screens, and nice tiles, but you will never win everyone over, sadly, but as long as you like it, that's all that should matter.
Screenshot sharing creates a whole new layer of promoting your quest, and brings in a lot of critique, and immediate comparisons to others for the some of the wrong reasons. Most people who frequent here, and a lot of lurkers only see screenshots. This is evidenced by the general lack of gameplay critique I see, as most "critique" here is based solely on visuals. That's the obsession with perfection I'm talking about. That kind of pressure can suck all the fun out of making a quest. And that's why we're here, right?
The amount of edits I've made to this post is a testament to my obsession with perfection