[soLong]

Well, while lenses do have limited DOF, only photography really has made an art out of it to isolate subjects, so to speak, i.e. the large sensors and lens physics (aperture) automatically forced photographers to work with that. Camera obscuras (pinhole) of the old school painters didn't have that limitation, so you don't see any out of focus blur in their paintings ;-)  

And the human eye really is mostly looking at the world all sharp, because it focuses constantly on what we are looking at, and it has a pretty good DOF. Most of depth perception comes from our 3D view and knowledge of our surroundings, not from blur. But blur can replace that to some degree in 2D images.

....yes indeed and using ye olde variable plane back plate ye earlie photographe was able to successfully tilt/shift his/her beautiful hi rez photographs into focus-from-here-to-infinity....which was and still is nice....

 

....but ye oldie goldie also employed "dark" rooms and psychedelic chemicals to process his/her pretty pictures into their natural glory....apparently employing grey-scales and lovely light and shade that (to these oldies eyes) appear natural and beautiful and focus the attention. As if you (after helping them lug around their latest large format 'compact' but huge gear/to be updated tomorrow with something completely different) were actually standing with them on their perfect day (there was less pollution back on their perfect days too....really....unless you did rather like ye oldie steam engines making clouds for their in-depth haze that is....and such haze does look hazier on a clear day you know)....

 

....so what's up folks with present day modern hi-tech resolving glory using infinite digital manipulation to reveal even the darkest darks, lightest lights, far away tiny leaves, and every slight skin perfection that you didn't want to know about and indeed couldn't see with the naked eye (or which your brain ignored)....now we have it all....but have we lost our taste in pictures when we are showing, and apparently selling, what looks harsh etched and unnatural....imho....

 

And anyway, although the eye apparently shows everything in focus, the brain really focuses on small parts of the scene, with the surroundings becoming almost invisible (ignored) unless movement attracts attention....so, mental softening or defocusing....no?