How Does This Game Have Good Graphics?

[Dragon]

I don't see why you need to bash the creator of that video when he's actually saying the same you said..
Sure, aesthetics will always be subjective, but since they are used to set the mood (for example, using only grey-brownish colors in Deus Ex Human Revolution was fitting the "dark future" mood the game was supposed to convey while fantasy MMOs are supposed to convey a feeling of "go out into this vast beautiful world and have some awesome adventures" for which those colors might not be a perfect choice) they are important.
Katamari might be "crap" to you but the simple style, the bright color palette etc. used are totally fitting the mood of the game - fun, nonsensical rolling around.
This doesn't mean you will enjoy the game, but it means the game might be more enjoyable if you like these types of games.

Also, the video creator and his team are all video game developers, saying they have no clue at all makes no sense

I personally enjoy FFXIV's aesthetics and think they fit the whole more-close-to-reality idea the game is following well.
But since aesthetics are subjective, the OP might think differently.
Since - like you and everyone else before you said - GRAPHICS are measurable though it can easily be proved that FFXIV's graphics are anything but bad.

Watch the video for yourself.

The fact is he tried to throw off his view of aesthetics as objective. He bashed games like Gears of War (hell I don't even like half those games like GoW) because they contained too much 'brown'. Case closed.

[Atoli]

[...]..because they contained too much 'brown'.

Well it really is a trend right now to throw in a lot of 'brown' to make things look more 'realistic'.
But if I look out of the window I see everything but brown.
I think it's just a lazy approach and I'm happy SE is not going this way with FFXIV.

[Dragon]

Well it really is a trend right now to throw in a lot of 'brown' to make things look more 'realistic'.
But if I look out of the window I see everything but brown.
I think it's just a lazy approach and I'm happy SE is not going this way with FFXIV.

Point is, the author bashed a game for being "too brown" and yet praised Katamari/SotC/whatever for their limited palettes in a video that's supposed to be about the differences between aesthetics and graphics.

It's not even close to being a lazy approach, palettes are there to build certain kinds of atmosphere. Games about war should always have certain palettes, just like kiddy games should have a certain kind of palette. A lazy approach would be using a universal palette for everything, something that those people bashing GoW for "being too brown" or what have you want.