You are confusing game style with the graphics. You can load high resolution textures pack, shaders and whatnot and the game will still be all squares. Because thats how the game is supposed to be. And its good as it is
Also, minecraft is stil very popular and probably has the biggest modding comunity.
After watching some youtubers (Yogscast, inthelittlewood and so on) i fell in love with minecraft. I started playing with a friend on my server(cracked), then we switched to Tekkit (oh god, that mod pack is so awsome.. =_=).
Now I got myself an original copy but I dont really play much, since playing alone is bit boring. Pretty much just watching them youtubers :/
So if anyone wants to play some tekkit or something maybe we can get to it