What about confusing clutter? Information overload? Doesn’t data have to be “boiled down” and “simplified”? These common questions miss the point, for the quantity of detail is an issue completely separate from the difficulty of reading. Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information. Often, the less complex and less subtle the line, the more ambiguous and less interesting the reading is. Stripping the detail out of data is a style based on personal preference and fashion, considerations utterly indifferent to substantive content.
the real issue is not the quantity of information but the design used to present it. Good design can handle complexity and detail, making the information clearer and more interesting. Stripping away details is more about personal and stylistic choices than about improving the understanding of the data.