You are confusing graphics fidelity with graphics design. It does NOT cost more to make a room more interesting than that generic apartment in question! Put in some flowers, a couple of African masks on the walls, rearrange the furniture so it doesn't look like an ad for IKEA, etc. Stuff like that. Bring more personality and make it look like the apartment has been lived in (pizza cartons? ).
What you are talking about is rewriting the render engine (for more snazzy effects) and/or remodelling the objects (by adding more polygons). That is NOT the same thing as making something look less generic, but that's the main way of making the graphics consume more resources (money).
I did sort of misread it, though to be honest I'm not too sure what she's talking about now that you mention it, because the ability to make that room more interesting certainly existed 3 years ago (and beyond), with respect to genericness. Though taking the time to model the flowers, african masks, and furniture still costs money, and lots of it. To be fair, I also don't know what she means by "generic" because at times a "generic" looking area makes sense in a modern day environment, because so much of life actually is pretty damn generic.
I still feel my comments stand, because she is lambasting a game based in large part on some screenshots, which might not even remain that way by the end of the development cycle. Adding flowers, african masks, and rearranging furniture does not take much time (assuming the modeling and whatnot is already done, and you're just placing objects which even I can do, and is indeed cheap).
But then you also stand to break other aspects of the game by doing TOO much. Given the character, would it make sense for his apartment to have the flowers and whatnot? I hate it when things look bland, but I also hate it when things are too cluttered.