I wish they would do this again today.
They would have even more flexibility and the sprites would be more detailed with much more animation.
The point of pre-rendered graphics back in the day was to transfer the look of fancy 3D models in weak systems that couldn't do 3D.
All the source 3D models they used for the SNES games could be easily rendered in real time today. So why digitize them then?
But i do agree with you that higher-res prerendered graphics with more animation frames would look great. Same thing with digitized graphics. Mortal Kombat with high-res graphics and 60fps animations would look better than any of the 3D games IMO.
But the problem is, very few devs are willing to put too much effort when they do 2D games. Most of the time they try to do this "retro look" pixellated style which looks like shitty Atari 2600 assets with modern lighting and particles. The "NES" look is also very popular and overused. It's either that or the crappy "CalArts" or "Adobe Flash" style with the ultra clean graphics, zero shading and skeletal animations
Very few 2D game developers have actually used the full potential of modern technology to create 2D games that look like the ones we used to dream about back in the day. The last one i remember is Cup Head.
The only developer that i know of who still uses pre-rendered 2D graphics is NGDEV who still make games for the Neo-Geo specs and port them to more capable systems later on like the Dreamcast or the Switch. So still a bit out of date in terms of hardware limitations and they only used the pre-rendered style for their SHMUPS.
This is their latest port on the Switch:
This show has production values that are of the level that it could be a TV show in its own right:
Taking only production values into account, yes. Otherwise no TV show about videogames would have such quality content.