Visual eye candy is great, but not at the expense of the story or character development and interaction. There are games out there, the Last of Us being a prime example, with a linear story and linear gameplay, where the graphics and cut scene quality literally make the game. Last of Us is a great game, for it's genre. I'm in the middle of my first playthrough, but I've seen a let's play on YouTube, and it looked awesome.
However, Last of Us is not an RPG. There are trade-offs to be had. TLOU was focused on a linear story, no need for conversation options, or branching storyline, or any of the myriad of things that are very commonly found in RPG's. Having the visual quality of that kind of game would take too much to allow for those kinds of things.
I agree to a large part with Sylvius. I want a protagonist who I define, who's choices matter, who's very existence is the reason for the game. I differ in that I'm willing to sacrifice some player agency for a tight story, where having limited options allows for a strong story moment. Sylvius, if I've misrepresented your position, I apologize, and please correct me if such is the case.
Having high quality graphics on top of the above is a definite plus, but if those graphics come at the cost of time/resources required for that, it is a detriment, in my opinion. I'd rather have graphics in line with ME1, or DA:O, and have a great story with great characters. I also enjoy the awesome graphics with the linear storyline of Last of Us, but that is a different game, and to expect that in a Bioware RPG is just...I don't know the word. They're different genres, and that's all that should be said on that, in my opinion.