doesn't try to insert fancy realistic lighting where it's not needed
This statement confuses me, because "fancy realistic lighting" is ultimately a
good thing and makes your games look gorgeous. While it's true that it's not really necessary in the grand scheme of things, you
want your games to employ advanced lighting techniques if your development can afford it, even in a 2D art style; the technology is there, why not make use of it?
Like, say what you want about Super Mario World's graphics, but I personally think this is very outdated and limited by the time it's in and its hardware, this "forest" of illusion is just represented by a generic backdrop of treetops rather than having any of the actual spooky trees in the background, and its lighting doesn't suggest it's supposed to be an illusory place shrouded in mystery.
To give you an example of what modern 2D platformers with a modern 2D art style can do with advanced lighting in a forest environment, I'll take an example from Ori and the Blind Forest.
Or even Rayman Legends, which has a less complex art style but still uses advance lighting techniques.
Even within Mario, look at the Bowser's Minions remake of Superstar Saga, it also uses advanced lighting techniques in its presentation and it looks very gorgeous for its facelifted environments, going to use the difference with GBA Chucklehuck Woods vs 3DS Chucklehuck Woods. While Bowser's Minions doesn't use the most advanced lighting out there, it does use more dynamic lighting techniques compared to the original and we get this as a result, which really does bring out Chucklehuck Woods as an organic, tree-covered place to life.
If your argument is "art style matters" then I do strongly agree with you there but Mario consistently has strong art styles and barely has an issue with generic landscapes (one of the biggest problems of modern NSMB games art style is that they DON'T use advanced lighting techniques relative for their hardware they're on, in fact!). If they're going to do a modern remake of Super Mario World and still keep it in 2D, they will absolutely keep its art style in faith, and we will see gorgeous Ghost Houses as a result that will do those environments so much justice.