A stranger told me my AI art looked like clip art, and they were right

I spent about 4 months posting fantasy landscapes and character portraits that I thought were amazing. Then one comment pointed out all my figures had that same glossy, weightless look, like stickers on a background. They said the lighting never matched between the character and the scene, and after I checked, they were completely correct. I started focusing on consistent light sources and adding texture overlays from real photos, just simple grain and shadows. Now I also pick a reference photo of an actual place to match my color grading to, even if I don't copy it. That one criticism from a stranger in Ohio, of all places, changed my whole workflow in two weeks. Has anyone else had a comment that broke your style apart and forced you to rebuild it from scratch?