Once again, when I was in marketing - the company I worked for did the campaigns for both Pixar's movies and Disney's original CG movies (like Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, etc.)
One thing we noticed was the level of detail in the environments in Pixar's work. You could always look closer and find something new. Most of the other studios kind of stop at a certain level of detail/depth and leave it at that. Pixar always had something new to find, that you hadn't noticed before (and we'd be seeing these movies hundreds of times as we cut trailers and TV spots). Taken as a whole, it makes for a "deeper" experience, that I think Pixar is known for, even if general audiences don't explicitly notice this, it comes across on one level or another.
My criticism for the Kitchen image isn't their attention to detail (which is excellent), but in the way the grunge is sort of just overlayed on top "globally". To me, its too even, and doesn't come across as a place that someone got dirty because they lived in it and used it daily for years and years.
Examples - the drawer pulls would have more wear on and around them, because that's where you'd be grabbing it. The floor would have wear marks where the table and chairs, especially the chairs, would have been sliding around in the same place for years. There would probably be wear marks on the floor in front of the sink, because you tend to shuffle your feet there more than elsewhere.
Not that any of this should be taken as huge criticism - its a great image.
And while I agree with Gilliam on some points, I disagree on others. CGI has come a long way, and practical effects/modelmaking came a long way before being phased out. If you look at one of the "pinnacles" of model-making vfx, Blade Runner - it still has its shortcomings and some particulars that say "model" to me. Mainly, the physics of atmosphere don't scale down in a very linear way. So Blade Runner has gorgeous models but sometimes iffy smog and haze.
CGI can simulate physics and things wonderfully, but in its own way can still fall short. As the above rendering shows.
Neither one can really work perfectly, though done well enough can effectively suspend your disbelief - which is after all the point of moviemaking.