Apart from misalignment and slop text, does the rest really matter?

As long as it doesn't degrade the site's usability, does the general public care about fingernail cards or gradients?

Looks good enough.

But it does actually decrease usability? Useless badges with non-sensical labels or colors without meaning are just confusing. Or the other example from the website: Aligning content is not just to please a designer's eye, it helps users understand which parts of the UI belong together.