Is it odd that my eyes prefer this version of the photo more? While the following img seems sharper, it also seems grainier to my eyes and I prefer the softer edges here. In fact, the softer edges feel more natural and if I take my own photo of my dinner and increase the sharpness, my meal looks kinda uncanny rather than delicious in high def lol. Is there a significant reason for this? Is it just because this image looks more like how the human eye perceives the world?

@muuncakez, I think this is personal preference to be honest. I prefer this, denoised image as well, it is probably because details aren't very important and the blurriness isn't that noticeable. In some cases I prefer the original, but at resolutions we are working that is pretty much doesn't happen today, most of the time denoising doesn't visibly blur out too much detail and just makes the image look better