It's a small team, and it is tailor made for the type of game they want to make - a fast, twitching, arcade game. Returnal looks great, certainly better than the vast majority of the games on the market, and certainly next-gen. But it is a vastly different game than what a team of 300 people whose focus is on Action/Adventure/Storytelling would make.
Yeah, which is why I said I made the concession to the size/inexperience of the studio.
I think the game looks great, too, but I'm just not convinced it looks good enough to explain being only 1080p. The particles are obviously very impressive, and the lighting looks nice. Otoh, I think the environments are pretty basic, certainly no more complex than good stuff from last gen. Maybe my expectations are excessive, but personally I was expecting more from this gen that 2x the frame rate and lots of fancy particles.
My honest opinion is that in non-covid times, and with a more experienced team, you'd expect these consoles to do more like 1440p60 at this fidelity.
But I guess time will tell.