There was a time laminate meant one thing: durability, not beauty. It held its color without fading, resisted humidity better than real wood, and shrugged off scratches that would have ruined a natural surface. Nobody chose it because they loved how it felt they chose it because it worked, and they accepted the trade-off that came with it: it always felt artificial. It looked like wood from across the room and felt like plastic the second you touched it.
That trade-off doesn’t exist anymore. The surfaces we use today still do everything laminate was always good at hold their color, resist moisture, resist scratches but they no longer give away what they are the moment you touch them. Run your hand across a surface built to replicate oak, and you feel the grain, not a sheet pretending to be wood. Across one built to replicate stone, and you feel the weight and the cool touch, not a printed picture of it. Same with fabric, leather, brushed metal.
Durability was always the argument for laminate. The artificial feeling was always the cost of it. Now there’s no cost at all.