That just sounds like a bias in your preferences. I think that the original Dragon Warrior looked good (cool smaller background overlaid on the world map). The remakes of those first four Dragon Warriors also look good, with nice backgrounds, clean enemy alignment and animated monsters. I also like the look of the default battle system in RMXP, with the party represented by nice looking avatars. Even FF: Mystic Quest was neat.
The fact that you have "never seen one that looked particularly good" speaks more to your preferences/bias against first person view than anything else, imho.
What was the first RPG you played?