I have a few in my library:

• Signalis (low-poly (not that you can notice), low-res, CRT effect)
• CrossCode (2D, low-res)
• Valheim (low-poly, low-res, still graphically intensive due to lighting)
• Lethal Company (low-res, bitcoin miner levels of GPU load)
• Super Alloy Ranger (2D, low-res)
• Terraria (you know Terraria, don’t lie)
• Iconoclasts (2D, low-res)
• Starbound (Terraria, but a bit worse and in space)

I don’t think these games aim for nostalgia, nostalgia alone is a good reason to choose low-poly or low-res graphics.

Low-res textures and sprites have the advantage of being much easier for artists not only to hand draw, but to explicitly choose what details a certain surface.
3D games with low-res rendering also have their own appeal, like you say: they tell you what you’re looking at but still leaves your imagination the burden of filling in the details.

To me low-poly models don’t really have their own appeal, unlike pixelated visuals, however I also don’t mind them at all.
I still occasionally play games like Perfect Dark and TLoZ: OoT on their recompiled PC ports, they look despite their low-poly nature because they don’t need high-poly models and their animations would look uncanny if they did (goofy ahh textures though).

However, there are some retro effects that I find to be straight up ugly: Signalis applies a CRT effect occasionally, which I can’t say I’m fond of.