I dare say you've landed on the answer yourself in the question.
When us... more matured chaps were growing up the influences around us were very much in the 'present day' category, ARs, AKs, 1911s, Glocks. It's certainly no coincidence that these are still the most commonly produced replicas. Cinema, TV, video games... it was all largely depicitions of weaponry that was in present use that time. Take a look at the same media now, geared toward that audience, the aesthetic of popular modern media to the younger crowd is shifting toward this look (refering to whatever that weird JG thing is). Especially in video games...Fortnite, Apex Legends, Overwatch to name just a few. Like it or not folks get conditioned to think this looks nothing like a 'cool gnu' because we learned what we perceive a gnu to look like when we were younger, the young 'uns nowaday likely have a slightly different idea of what makes a 'cool gnu'.
Side note, my opinion lines up with yours. I think it looks wank... but I was trying to present an actual answer to your question, despite the fact I suspect it was rhetorical.