In this day and age, a terrible image is proof of importance, or perhaps applied importance. The most circulated images are the ones that have been screenshotten, texted, Instagrammed, "regrammed", shared on Facebook, tweeted about, used for reference in articles, memed, referenced in advertising, etc. Conversation is had around these images, and the speed with which images are shared and altered is increasingly fast. Even if an image does not gain lasting cultural importance, there is still inherent importance in the images that are used to spread ideas.
This makes me think of suveillance images and typically their blurriness. Surveillance images are usually poor images because of a lack of ability to cheaply store long reels of high quality videos. At some level, the cost of having information is too high, so there is a compromise in the quality of the image, even with the knowledge that it would be important to have . a quality image in some situations.