I think the 'vertical slice' method is mostly to blame for such downgrades. At one point there was probably a version of Cyberpunk with so many NPC's that looked like that.
But when the scale increases cuts have to be made both for performance and gameplay.
For example, when my brother starts testing a new map his team creates he usually sends them a list of things they should cut to improve the gameplay.
Because shit gets in the way of player movement or campers become impossible to hit. As I've been part of this beta/play testing for several games now I've seen quite some cool shit get cut that just didn't work in the final game for various reasons.
i've never been impressed by ray tracing in stills and even in motion a lot of the time i'm not sure if it looks "better" if you were trying to make a completely aesthetically pleasing composition.
what it does do is make things convincing. valve like to use the word "presence" with VR a lot, and RT does that visually. it takes a step out of the videogame uncanny valley which is more powerful than even the most spectacular particle effect to my mind.
In CONTROL it definitely felt like an improvement and didn't change the overall look of the art direction much.
In the CP2077 screenshots it looks like it just lights up everything so it becomes more bright.
You can find them here (spoilers):
https://dtf.ru/hard/279342-cyberpunk-2077-4k-skrinshoty-s-maksimalnymi-nastroykami-i-zametki-na-polyah-o-samoy-igreEspecially in the hallway and bar screenshot it looks like that along with the RTX the gamma or brightness went up a few notches.