Altmeri Civil Engineering?
Simple really.
One breeds a sense of authenticity and uniqueness while another breeds a sense of familiarity and reinforces ideas that shouldn't be there to begin with. Like Tolkien elves being anything like TES Mer.
To go into more detail.
Insect wings and such types of architecture will stick out more and will be more memorable. They are completely off most people's radar and there are very few cultures that have such a thing going for them. Even fantasy cultures. Zero major fantasy tropes that I am aware of involve buildings made of insect wings and crystal. With the importance people place on aesthetics, it will make the culture itself feel more authentic and unique. As opposed to Rivendell Redux which sends all the wrong messages about Altmeri culture(see all the threads on X race is Y culture because of Z aesthetic for evidence of such things) and will be just another game/fantasy setting that reuses and adapts a trope that has become tired at this point and all too familiar. It is a creative-less crutch used by artists who do not or cannot come up with their own interesting architectural styles. Rivendell is great, as Rivendell.
Ahem,
Tam! Rugh!
Here we go again.
While I obviously agree that making the Altmer more like Tolkien's elves is a very bad thing, I want to touch on this notion of "authenticity and uniqueness."
Michael Kirkbride's vision of Tamriel feels authentic because it's well-thought-out, not because of the subject matter itself. A Song of Ice And Fire feels authentic too, even though its subject matter is very familiar. When that much care and thought is put into the fantasy world, it can be a one-to-one recreation of 20th century London or pink bunnymen living on a moon made out of baklava, it's going to feel authentic.
As for being more unique, it only is in the sense that Kirkbride borrows heavily from tropes that we're not used to in a western RPG. If you're familiar with http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111127165418/finalfantasy/images/3/3f/Amano_FFIX.jpg http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100706030450/finalfantasy/images/9/98/Crystal_Tower_Artwork.jpg, http://i.neoseeker.com/ca/white_knight_story_conceptart_Ejcga.jpg http://i.neoseeker.com/ca/white_knight_chronicles_conceptart_oV4ic.jpg http://i.neoseeker.com/ca/white_knight_story_conceptart_eycNk.jpg, or http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/multi/lastremnant/art/lastremnant5.jpg http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/multi/lastremnant/art/lastremnant4.jpg http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/multi/lastremnant/art/lastremnant6.jpg, to name a couple relatively recent examples and one classic one, you already know what Kirkbride sees when he shuts his eyes and thinks about Tamriel.
What makes his use of these influences feel unique and interesting, though, is the context he frames them in. We're used to only seeing JRPG tropes in a land of bright colors, spiky hair, silly outfits, and pre-pubascent heroes. But he weaves them into a conventional Western fantasy environment and combines them with real-world historical cultures and just a touch of sci-fi, and the end result is something that isn't exactly like anything else in fantasy. That's the real reason why Michael Kirkbride's Tamriel is surprising and interesting, not because he's a genius or savant or something. And having grown up on JRPGs first and foremost (Morrowind was my first foray into western RPGs), it still has a deep sense of familiarity to me because I've seen a lot of it before. Which gets back to the point I've made here time and time again, that familiar isn't bad as long as the authors aren't using familiar tropes as a replacement for actually putting time and effort into crafting a believable world.
And that's the real problem with ZOE's vision of Tamriel. They're using Tolkien, Martin, and Salvadore as a crutch, so that rather than writing out, for instance, who the Altmer are, what they want, how they think, or how they live, they put them in Rivendell and allow the viewer's imagination to fill in the details ("Okay, these guys are elves, so they're probably wise, benevolent, nature-loving, powerful, and just a little bit arrogant and snooty").
Using familiar tropes is not, in itself, lazy (Again, the Ayleids are a great example of how to do this the right way). But the way that ZOE (and Bethesda, to a lesser extent) is using them is.