A few notes about supernormal stimuli
So I saw that article about supernormal stimuli, where the author was ranting about how it is bad and how it is ruining the society and the natural order of things and whatever. It was long ago and I don't remember where did I see that shit, but now that I've remembered it, I feel like saying something about that one.
Basically, things which elicit some sort of response in living beings are called stimuli - for example, it can be the sweet smell of flowers or fruits, that loud sound coming from somewhere, the sweet, sweet taste of honey, the feel of warmth that breeze brings about... basically, anything that is, in one or other form, causes some reaction. Things routinely encountered in nature can be called "normal" stimuli, while things not encountered naturally - and which elicit a much stronger response than their natural analogs - are called "supernormal" stimuli.
A few examples of those could be: A beautiful virtual world featuring all sorts of graphic effects; A big, juicy hamburger filled with numerous variants of spices and sauces; A picture of some sporty girl with unusually attractive proportions not encountered normally; A super sweet candy packed with numerous fruits of different flavors...
What's wrong with saying supernormal stimuli are wrong
All living beings - humans included - are striving for what they know as "optimal conditions". They want to be where the berries are sweeter, the life is more abundant, the sun shines brighter and the nests feel cozier and safer. The explanation for that is simply that their chance of survival (and propagation) is greater where living conditions are more favorable. More life means more food, water and other necessities; brighter sun means more energy; sweeter berries give more nourishment, and so on.
And as for beings possessing at least partial sapience, these beings can do what no other animals can, in addition to having an edge over other animals in claiming lands: they can make their own means to satisfy their demands. They can build a nice home and create a micro-climate where they'll feel comfortable under a much wider range of weather, allowing themselves to colonize places they aren't suited for naturally. They can cook their food in a wide variety of ways, making it tastier, more durable and/or more nutritious. They can arrange their living places so they would look more aesthetically pleasing, not like any place they can find in nature...
And it just so happens that many, many of these inventions, adaptations and innovations are far superior compared to their natural analogs.
What's that driving people to take a stand against supernormal stimuli
There was that one article which mentioned the term, "supernormal stimuli", but before that, thousands upon thousands of activists were voicing their objections to them. Anti-porn activists. Those who wanted to ban (uhh, actually control) videogames. Those who wanted to ban sweets by declaring sugar a menace. Those who op-pose pleasure and joy in general, either totally or "above some threshold we set".
And there are various motives behind their activities.
Control people through controlled access to pleasure
This is the main reason for anti-pornography, anti-videogames, anti-movies, anti-music, anti-well-whatever-pleasre-source-they-can-not-control activists to exist. The idea itself is theorized to be about as old as Christianity, which is known to be an anti-hedonist, pro-servitude, pro-life-in-scarcity religion; by controlling the sources of joy and pleasure, one can reward the obedient and industrious ones by providing them limited access to what makes them feel good. Not very different from training a dog to be obedient.
And of course, in order for that system to work, there must not be any cheap, easily-available sources of pleasure around; after all, why would anyone work their ass off/die in wars/engage in something that's not beneficial for their interests for some limited pleasure you offer if they can get far more, far cheaper, and without having to deal with you? That's where the efforts to ban pleasure sources come from. Unless you're accessing them with Master's permission, you're the criminal - that's their principle.
Supernormal stimuli make their product or service obsolete
This one is mostly observed among women, who suddenly find porn and sex simulators/games a serious competitor for them. So I'll focus on this manifestation as an example.
For any demands, superior solutions gradually emerge over time as interested persons contribute resources and effort, eventually producing what they see as a superior option which satisfies that demand better. However, in some cases, there is a vast industry created to provide "obsolete" solutions, and whoever owns/operates/profits from that industry is threatened by the progress, as their goods and services slowly phase out of public demand - and in an attempt to save itself from losing an assload of expensive assets, it often engages in some sort-of luddism. (And luddites were originally textile workers and artisans who couldn't manage industrial machines and so got obsolete with their manual methods)
Small outrages often happen over new technologies replacing older industries and enterprises - not so long ago, movie theaters were butthurt over video players, various middlemen in show business were upset over internet piracy, and many traditional entertainment services lamented the emergence of videogames, believing it'll close them for good. These have solved their issues, one way or another. So they didn't bring about the end of supernormal stimuli.
This, however, remains a serious issue for many women, whose lives were suddenly and radically altered by pornography, videogames, and other super-entertainment which have swiftly seized a lot of attention and time of men. For centuries, if not thousands of years, women have enjoyed a privileged position in human societies, as the only providers of quality sexual services - which were known as one of the most pleasure-inducing activity right before those videogames and porn came around. Well, there appeared an even more potent source of pleasure, and women suddenly faced sharply decreasing demand. Just a generation or two ago they prospered, providing sexual and romantic services and collecting tons of boons from men who were actively competing for them - and now, they find themselves in a situation where their services are easily replaced by videogames, and there is even an increasingly popular male-oriented movement which practices minimization of contact with women, and aims to completely replace them.
And while many women adapt and prosper in the new world, sometimes that desire to get a husband so she would use him as a sort-of money source+problem solver+emotional punching bag kicks in. And there, they find it that now they need to be competitive and that (oh, the cruelty) they need to contribute to the family more than just letting her husband fuck her once in a time and performing a household chore or two. And so, they act like greedy corporations, pushing laws against competition until they master what their competitors are using to profit. Except that they do not intend to keep in line with the progress and instead want to sap resources and lifeforce from men until the end of them.
Mentally-conservative humans unwilling to embrace the new possibilities in their lives
I'm talking about those old chaps who still don't understand what's there in playing videogames and how is that better than going outside, talking to real people, playing real games etc. Surprisingly, you can see these "old life promoters" even on modern social networks, right next to a Stellaris gaming community. Those people don't do this for any political or economic agenda and they're less aggressive with their views - they rarely organize movements to oppose any supernormal stimuli. But they often support the existing movements. Not because they believe in their political agenda, but because they just have common desires.
Without any solid political agenda of their own, and driven by the strong desire for things to "come back to what they were back when the grass was greener and the kids were more docile lively", they often hop onto the existing movements, greatly bolstering their numbers. Not that they can do anything right now, but in an event of a conservative, traditionalist, or any other authoritarian movement gaining popularity, they can help them win. And those movements are known to outright ignore, if not repress, the needs and views of others. Not the kind of a rule you'd like to live under, I think.
Greedy corporations trapping people in a hedonistic dystopia
This one is the only notion which has some credibility to it.
Basically, it sounds like this: A company gets famous for making some highly-sought goods; They sell a lot of them and become big; Once they're big, they start dictating their own terms and modifying their products the way they see fit, leaving the general populace with the options of either not buying their product (which puts the customer into a huge disadvantage once the product is widely enough spread and is part of normal lives) or sucking it up and buying what they want to sell.
And they'd be right if not for the community of geeks and other amateurs who know just how to slightly alter the product so it no longer uploads your entire digital life to Xi Jinping or any other nosy ass sucker. A good example is MS Windows 10, which is riddled with telemetry of all sorts; it is supposed to spy on every customers' action, and make their privacy void - the other alternative being the seemingly-obsolete Windows 7. However, it turns out that neither the Windows 7 is obsolete and nor the telemetry is unavoidable. And so, those tech-savvy enough can either turn off all the spyware in Win 10, or outright use Win 7 and forget about Microsoft spying on them.
Another example is corporations pushing bugs and "plant-based meat " as food. So they've got their customers hooked up on tasties, and now they say, "You're gonna eat bugs or fuck off". Except that doesn't work this way and those not willing to eat bugs can raise their own livestock, curbing those megacorps' plans.
So in other words, whether the megacorps will or won't trap people into that awful mechanism, depends on the people. Whether there'll be enough geeks and independents to either make their own stuff, or tweak the product to fit their needs.
Tribal war
This isn't a war between the Supernormal Stimuli tribe and the Good Ole Nature tribe, but rather wars of different scales between groups with different interests. Sometimes, warring tribes manage to target a supernormal stimulus while fighting each other - for example, anti-anime groups demanding a ban on anime, or the "real men" who still spend resources on women and gyms and other real man shit sometimes end up demanding a ban on anything that replaces women, or being a nuisance for men who do not act like the "real man" should, for example, crying, eating sweets, or not working hard. This is more like a side-effect, though, and doesn't warrant a long description. This one paragraph is enough.
A short list of benefits brought by those supernormal amenities
Economic growth
The demand for supernormal stimuli creates the supply of them, and that leads to creation of whole new industries creating something with high value. And that, in turn, leads to creation of wealth. Which, in turn, leads to more jobs and more available goods in the market. In other words, that stuff makes your country richer. After all, the economy is built around market demand, and stifling that demand is stifling the economy.
Increased quality of life
Tasty food, enhanced entertainment, colorful streets, the abundance of various trinkets and baubles - all that makes life happier. And happiness boosts one's wellbeing and capabilities.
Progress
On one hand, selling those trinkets and baubles yields a lot of money, which can then be used to plan for "something greater". Then again, that "something greater" isn't that great if we curb one's potential to seek joy and pleasure - not many people would want to explore the Universe or some spiritual planes if they know all that awaits them is more of the same boring, bland, restrained life.
The examples of some more authoritarian societies, such as the Soviet Union, show that quite well. The entire country was set on conquering the universe once they've managed to launch a human into low orbit - and they didn't even manage to land on the moon. Something that the "hedonistic, spoiled" Americans did. (you may say they didn't but then again, why did the USSR not bring that up earlier? That was a good chance to publicly humiliate America by proving them a bunch of liars... That is, unless America didn't lie on this one.)
On the other hand, a lot of technological progress is done while chasing the goal of perfecting the entertainment and making more joy and pleasure. Computer technologies are a great example, with numerous companies producing more powerful hardware for gamers; meanwhile, game developers are improving their virtual environment simulators with the primary goal of selling games using those technologies. Think you would have Unreal Engine 5, with all of its powerful features, if there were no videogames? Dude, you would not have an Unreal Engine 'cause it originated from a 1998 videogame called Unreal.
Even the technologies which weren't originally used for entertainment and daily life in general often manage to improve an ordinary citizen's life once the consumer market starts using them. Computers were originally very bulky machines for scientific and military tasks, the internet was originally a military network and it's the consumer demands which push developers towards making it faster and comfier, and if not for people wanting a hi-def picture on their screen, you'd likely not have 4K displays and would've probably been still using vector monitors or something.
Improvement of one's artistic/creative capabilities
Not only many extraordinary sensations bring up a spark of creativity in some persons, they also perform much poorer when unhappy or depressed. And of course, a bland life doesn't inspire the creation of rich and beautiful fantasy worlds - as clearly seen when comparing countries where people are generally happier (such as America and Japan, both are full of indie creatives) to oppressive shitholes (such as China or North Korea). Beautiful faraway worlds just don't come to mind when you think about uselessness of life and futility of struggle.
And that's basically it.
Well, not quite exactly. But the point is, supernormal stimuli aren't a bad thing.
Come to think about it, most of human civilization revolves around joy and pleasure. From that, many inspirations spring up. Many technologies we're using today is a result of someone being lazy, dreaming of rich fruit gardens, or the wish to eat tasty candies every day. And in some cases, these thoughts are followed by a potentially-productive idea of how to implement that.
It comes without a doubt that more powerful supernormal stimuli would help spring forward even mre complex and bizarre ideas. Some might not work, but then again, some will.
So whoever bashes on joy and pleasure: Fuck you with a 15 meter long steel spire with lots of spikes facing the handler.