Interesting that most of the top comments are talking about wastefulness.

I think that's part of why everyone went to flat design - Windows Vista and glass effects looked great, but they were expensive to compute! Flat designs are aesthetically controversial, and can be more difficult to use than skeuomorphic ones, especially for older users [0][1].

Considering that realism can aid in usability, I think it's totally valid to use effects like this on the web.

[0]: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0144929X.2020.18...

[1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01419...