A lot of vintage collectors like them because they resemble the old cards they collect, and add interesting historical items like those silks/cloths you mentioned. Some of the sets even include real cards from the 1880s in modern buyback frames as chase cards. While the original Allen & Ginter didn't make any silks to my knowledge, they were really popular in the 1910 era of tobacco cards:
https://www.comc.com/Cards,so,=silks,ot
Most set collectors still like them, but not as much now that you have to consider Ginter X, Chrome, and Sapphire? as parallels. Most people just liked the simplicity of a few parallels, which mostly stayed the same from year to year before Ginter X became a thing.