I get the people liking the dark part. I liked the dark parts best. I never got the curse wasn't dark enough. My favorite island was Blood Island.

We had a grave digger, a woman who died of a broken heart and remains a ghost, a man crushed by his flip-up bed, Guybrush gets buried alive several times(along with Stan), a fortune teller whose cards only come up death, a creepy Charon-like ferryman, a fall from a high cliff and the king of the smuggler's who tries to kill you.

I loved Monkey 1.
But...no art or product based on technology is immune to progressing technology. The design decisions that informed the design of adventure games were based on the limitations of the platform.
In short, adventure game structure is based around the fact that we couldn't simulate a more "realistic" world. The adventure game interface is really a 'work around.'
So, let's not blame the art or the artist. Soapstone sculptures don't compare to La Pieta, either.
But I don't like to play the classic adventure games either. I feel their time has come and gone.