I read a book a few years ago that really changed my thinking on these sorts of questions. It's called
The Substance Of Style and the basic point was that it matters, in a real way, how things look and feel.
We tend to trivialize the importance of that stuff, and when we do, this can cause us to fool ourselves. Yes, style should never inhibit the function of an important tool, and yes, like anything else, it should not be taken to extremes. But by the same token, I've never met a craftsman who did not consider the physical beauty of his tools and materials to be important to him. Learning to see and appreciate beauty is part of what makes his work genuine. I don't think you can really be a craftsman of any sort without it.
How many of us here "would not mind" finding a large ugly scratch across the surface of our guns? Of _course_ looks matter. They matter a lot. An entire industry exists just to provide refinishing services to firearms, and believe me, it's not just about rust protection.
Similarly, we all agree that a well-built gun is a gun who's parts fit cleanly and smoothly and crisply together. Any little wiggle or grit or binding or mushiness in the feel of any part attracts our immediate and negative attention, even if the function is otherwise perfect.
Only a small fraction of our guns are genuinely just utilitarian tools, even if we like to think of them that way. Enjoying firearms is, in a large part, all about enjoying aesthetics. The look, the feel, the balance, the grace, the beauty. Why not make the most of it?
For some of us, deliberate attempts to make something beautiful will always fall short, while the 'accidental' beauty of a purely functional piece is something to discover, something to learn to appreciate. I fall into this camp myself, even as I admit that the beauty of such things is, more often than not, far from accidental.
When a guy like John Browning designs a pistol, he does not set out to make it pretty, but you can bet that the beauty of the design is central to his vision and his process. It's part of the whole picture, part of the whole truth. So why not appreciate it openly?