In the old 8-bit days, pixel art was all there was. The graphics were "realistic" because we had never seen anything else like it. As game graphics evolved, they moved away from art and into the photo-realistic. Modern AAA games have graphics with fully textured and lit 3D models of 10,000 polys.

Since that level of production is unreasonable to ask a small game dev studio to undertake, often they go with intentionally "stylized" graphics. Trying to evoke the old nostalgias of the 8-bit gamers while saving a few hours of artwork.

But it seems like nowadays pixel art games are a dime a dozen, and instead of being a unique style, it comes off as just lazyness. So as an indie game dev, what are we supposed to do? What artistic options exist for non-AAA studios while still being fast and less-than photo-realistic?

EDIT: I'd like to remind people that downvoting because you disagree with them is bad reddiquette. A lot of good discussion points are now buried just because people don't like what they have to say, but are totally on topic. For example, this post by /u/wadcann is awesome.