About par for the course these days. Pretty much anything to do with aesthetics has given way to this frenzy of everything being LED and saving the planet. It's a pity that no-one responsible for this stuff seems to give the slightest fuck as to what it actually looks like. I've seen the most inappropriate lanterns shoved on all manner of nice old 'antique' or 'victorian' columns, or even in the most ridiculous settings, such as bolted on the side of a listed building. No-one seems to care any more. It's sad.

Exactly, and I know for a fact that you can get really good looking traditional looking LED lanterns that look almost identical to old gas ones!

You can indeed. But installing stuff like that costs more and councils these days don't like spending anything, so they'll go with the cheapest tat they can find. Even if that means it won't last and they'll be back replacing it.