anyone else have a strange obsession with grain and 'degraded' images?

i think that for me it began when nearly two decades ago i was getting into fashion photography and back then all of the (modelling) agencies would have tear sheets in models portfolios- literally pages on which a model of theirs was featured, torn out of a magazine. these pages would usually be crudely scanned and as such have all kinds of artifacts and such. for whatever reason, i really liked that aesthetic and tried for years to recreate it not realizing that it was literally as easy as re-scanning one of my images (preferably poorly).

soon as i began scanning my images a few years ago, that 'aha' realization was unlocked, but i only use it selectively now- it's easy to overdo.

besides that, i can't seem to back away from grain, which is ironic considering my first several years as a photographer i fought tooth and nail to avoid it, wanting to minimize it as much as possible, buying cameras with great iso performance in hopes of grain being lesser, etc., etc., but similar to the above obsession with degradation, i eventually became obsessed with grain, i can't even remember how or why. emulating film is likely the obvious answer, but that wasn't it- i shot film in tandem with digital. maybe it goes hand in hand with the degraded look, idk, but i admit i can overdo it... my go-to is "add noise, uniform, 2.45%" (sometimes 3.45%), very seldom heavier. but i worry it ties my images to a certain period in what will be hopefully a wider body of work.

most people strive for beautiful clean images but intentionally seem to want to crush blacks and add other kinds of chaos.

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obsession with grain and degraded/lofi images?