Character and Narrative - Texture in Traditional animation aesthetic

I have noticed a trend in lots of recent digital animation - applying textures to reduce the bland flatness of digitally coloured images. One example of an animation I think utilises this technique well, and for a number of reasons, is Drawing Inspiration directed by Wesley Louis and Tim McCourt. Whilst many background elements are actually painted in watercolour the character and prop animation is drawn and coloured digitally. Not only would these elements look anachronistic against a painted background, but the cartoony style of the characters could easily make it look playful and exciting - unlike the quite morose mood of the piece. The animation focuses on an alcoholic magician, and I think due to the slightly more mature themes portrayed in the film it would have looked weird if the art style used flat colours. It seems like for many animators who want to make films for adults, adding textures is a shorthand aesthetic cue which separates their work from children's cartoons.
In my own work I have used it as an alternative to line boil when a scene looks like it will appear to flat and lifeless, an animated texture can bring a bit of movement.

Another reason I think this trend has come about is due to a much wider movement in art away from digital techniques and towards more analogue or handmade aesthetics. I think this is due to some new snobbery about digital art now that it is so easy and cheap for the general public to create and publish their work. Maybe it is subconscious but I believe society or at least the art world is placing a renewed emphasis on the handmade, and this has resulted in the increased use of simulated paper textures, analogue noise and other overlays to add texture and depth to a flat image.
I used a similar technique during my "The Other Side" animation at level 4 - overlaying scans of old newspapers to break up the boring flat look of the animation.

Cartridge paper texture applied in Drawing Inspiration

Newspaper texture applied in my animation