There is a strong pull in Indian residential work towards surfaces that look flawless on the day of handover: high-gloss laminate, mirror-polished stone, sprayed paint. They photograph well and they begin to fail almost immediately.
We prefer materials with a longer horizon. Lime plaster picks up a soft patina, oiled teak darkens where hands touch it, and laterite keeps its colour through decades of monsoon. None of these look perfect. All of them look better with time.
Honesty also means not disguising construction. A board-formed concrete wall carries the memory of its shuttering; a stone floor shows its bedding joints. When a house admits how it was made, it stops needing decoration to be interesting.
There is a practical argument too. Materials that age gracefully do not require the cycle of repainting and replacement that synthetic finishes demand, which quietly makes them the cheaper choice over the life of a home.