> The “realism” of graphics has nothing to do with performance.

Obviously I understand your point that computational complexity is different than the extent to which something is realistic. But it's totally wrong that it "has nothing it do with" it.

Photorealistic scenes require high res textures, higher detail levels in geometry, better shadows, better global illumination, etc...

Cartoonish art styles don't necessarily require any of those. They still benefit from them, but with diminishing returns.

It's cool if they want to take advantage of some fancy UE5 features, but the burden to optimize is on them, especially considering that the game's quality settings look like this: https://www.thegamer.com/borderlands-4-optimal-pc-settings/#...