IMO, it very much depends on the genre of the production. A moody, atmospheric drama production is unlikely to benefit from highly saturated and contrasty images, but a travel documentary featuring, say, the South Pacific islands would more likely benefit from Kodachrome/Ektachrome-like color grading (within reason of course).

I recall an episode from a couple of years ago of a local FTA lifestyle program that weekly explores interesting shops, eateries, galleries and the like in a specific suburb. The show is bright and cheerful, but one segment in this particularly episode was so low in saturation and gamma level that it seemed more like it was color graded for a moody low-key genre. In other words, the color grading didn't complement the genre.

The color grading choice (including by way of LUT, Magic Bullet Looks, BCC+Looks), etc) ultimately comes down to the creative choice made by the individual editor or the production team (i.e. editor, director, producer/EP/client). If they get it wrong and the color grading mismatches the genre of the production, then that will likely unsettle the audience.

BTW - a good topic.