Utilizator (maker of Avatar 2.0) posted a rant about this a while back (hope it's ok to link it here)
http://utilizator404.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/sl-graphics-update-and-steam/
Basically SL's problem isn't its graphics engine, or capabilities, it's the designers. G-I-G-O, I believe the acronym is.
EG if every user has the ability to make things out of lego-block prims, SL will always look like 2004 poo. If you want SL to look like Battlefield 4 - and no reason it can't, more or less - people need to get serious about content creation. Whether textures, learning Blender/Maya, using the forthcoming normal maps etc. Battlefield 4 doesn't look like that because they asked a team of random people to make it, but because they had professionals using professional tools and tecniques making it. If you want SL to look like that, you need to get professional And I don't mean charge L$10,000 for a model of an armchair, I just mean professional in your approaches to creation. Stop with the "ah thats good enough" if obviously its not. (But then, it's our fault for not demanding excellence at the checkout)