The original intent of pixel art was to create as much as possible with limited resources, it was a necessity due to technology restrictions at the time.

That intent has been flipped on its head with modern retro art, which uses capable technology to limit expression. There's nothing wrong with that in itself, but it usually misses the point as detail perishes in modern styles while it flourishes in the original. And it doesn't really work, or at least fails in what it initiatives.

This example and I think others I've seen by this artist are great demonstrations of the style by somebody who gets it.

The number of colours used highlights that, and colours/file sizes/memory resources etc were also part of the original reason that pixel art existed.

Edit: Just noticed we're in the GIFs subreddit, colour count directly linked to filesize and in the early days of animated GIFs on the internet it mattered a lot.

Makes it sound more impressive to increase engagement?

Like the classic, "I woke up at 2 am and hiked 4000 miles just to take this photograph"