It really depends on the context. An urban street lined with massive brownstones is nice. A nice little cottage in the woods by itself is nice. Large houses all bunched up, in some random suburban setting, is usually going to look kind of goofy. It would be better to have homes in a range of sizes, with some variation in lot sizes as well. That's going to blend in better with whatever surrounds the homes.
Correct. There are parts of Cleveland that still have large houses from when Cleveland was an industrial powerhouse that are close together, but it looks nicer. Part of that though is absolutely the cultural derision of "nouveau riche" vs "old money" seeping into our perceptions of what looks good and what does not.
