Question About Video Game Technology and Development

So it bores me to tears to listen to people rattle off the specs for newer consoles and technical discussions about which console is better puts me to sleep.

And yet, for whatever reason, I am endlessly fascinated by older systems and the work that went into them. Stupid laymen me doesn't understand a lot of it but it's still neat to learn all about consoles from the 80s and 90s and how cutting edge they were for their time.

But this got me wondering about a couple things. These systems were amazing for their time...but their time was, now we look back on it, very very brief. All this work and all that money to be the best and we now see them as primitive and ugly. People on the internet make better looking video games than whole companies could make twenty years ago.

So my question to the technologically savvy among you....

Did the makers of these games know they were making something "ugly?" I mean, especially for early 3D on the Playstation, people always complain about the horrid models or textures. Did the developers know they were making something not that great looking but they just couldn't do anything about it?

And for video game designers as a whole back in the 16 or 32 bit era, did they forsee how obsolete all their efforts would be in no time? I mean, I dunno how long HD has been a thing people know about or even a concept but it really serves to hurt a lot of classic games.

Many developers say that they are looking forwards to the next generation because it'll let them do all the things they thought of in their most recent game but couldn't implement because the console doesn't have the power to do so, so I'm guessing yes.

I am pretty sure that the developers in FF6 at some points thought "man I wish there was enough video RAM to add another 4 colors to the palette", or "if only it was possible to make these faces a bit more detailed.".