I have a theory on this, touched on it a little in that afx discussion in the best songs thread… nerds aiming for mass appeal make interesting things. Socially inept people creating things to lose their virginity. Outside music the obvious example is Mark zuckerberg trying to get his hole and ruining politics, all of our lives, the concept of truth.
Producers like autehcre, afx, objekt to some degree are naturally quite fussy taste wise, restless... abstract concepts, odd detail.. so those elements come through even if they make something quick and ‘basic’. It’s not the bit they need to try at, the bit they need to try at is the immediate embodiment, the immersion, the emotional oomph… But when these types let their restlessness and desire for complexity take over and try and be too clever they kill momentum and energy.
Many love Aphex for the intensity but I like his sense of melody more than anything. and nearly getting there and missing the mark for mass emotional appeal can be captivating, the reach, slightly off pop… not IDM but EUDM, emotionally unintelligent dance music