Interesting point of view. Choices of style apart, there are situations where textures are useful. Like for example the case faced by swayvil (see the comment), or when you need b/w printable images.
Another good reference is "Semiology of Graphics" of Jacques Bertin, he has a good opinion about textures.
"Semiology of Graphics" is a great book, but this was published in the 1960s when those graphs where drafted by hand and color printing was probably not an option.
I am ignorant as to what tools a draft-mans hand for shading then, but I am sure hatching would be easier than creating a fine range of halftone grays.
> Can optical art effects ever produce a better graphic? Bertin exhorts: “It is the designer’s duty to make the most of this variation; to obtain the resonance [of moiré vibration] without provoking an uncomfortable sensation: to flirt with ambiguity without succumbing to it.” But can statistical graphics successfully “flirt with ambiguity”? It is a clever idea, but no good examples are to be found. The key difficulty remains: moiré vibration is an undisciplined ambiguity, with an illusive, eye-straining quality that contaminates the entire graphic. It has no place in data graphical design.
