Oh please be quiet. The poll is extremely biased.
Quite frankly, no developers don't need nor should they all of a sudden stop updating and improving on anything and that includes graphics.
I prefer to call them "visuals" as that implies the aesthetic viewpoint of graphics, not the pixel pushing polygon that "Graphics" are referred to.
Oh, and of course you point to the Metal Gears and the Final Fantasies of the original Playstation. It's not like those graphics, as the time, were cutting edge or anything. It's not like people gawked at the visuals of the games and thought "wow, graphics can't get any better than this!"
Oh oh oh, Of COURSE games you pick games like MGS and Final Fantasy had shitty graphics, but that's by todays standards! Back then they were the cutting edge of visuals, the diamonds in the rough! You simply cannot say that "graphics don't make the game!" and then point to an older game where the graphics are outdated by todays ability of graphics. Since the visuals are no longer that great, you can easily see past those and see the gameplay and story in the game.
I am so sick of people whining about how "graphics are killing the industry!". Well I've got news for you, it's always been like this. There's no shortages of Mirror's Edge's, Braids, Patapons, or any other crazy game that isn't a pixel pumping machine. Graphics have always been like this to begin with and it won't suddenly stop overnight just because you don't think we need 1080p over 1080i visuals (not that I care to much for either, but I still love my 1080i TV)
If we can improve on graphics, then we can improve on pretty much everything else. Improving storylines isn't exactly easy or cheap, and gameplay all relys on both story and graphics. Graphics/visuals are probably one of the easier aspects of a game to improve, and that includes things like animation, textures, or lighting effects. They each have their own part of the visual spectrem.
And I have MORE news for you. Very few developers ever improved graphics just for the hell of it, if any. All developers who go on about graphics, they're not clamoring over how many pixels you get on the screen, they're going bannanas over the fact that more pixels on the screen means more imersion. If we could get Crysis level or Killzone 2 level prettiness on near every game, then we're in for some awesomely atmospheric and beautiful games that we can be drawn into.
BLAHSALDKFHASDGL, that's enough of the rant, I'm not even sure if I'm making sense.
