Agree except: pixels aren't always sharp. It's before my time, but I'm told pixel art on CRTs looks pretty fuzzy.

It also depends on the system.

Back in the day running something like Super Mario 3 often meant composite video going through RF hookup and the TV "recovering" and decoding. I'm sure that accounted for a bit of the blurriness.

Contrast this with a game like Commander Keen for DOS running in 16-color graphics on a VGA CRT monitor which sends separate R, G, B signals. I remember Keen being very crisp even as a kid who practically pressed their face against the glass when playing.