Totally get that. Read an article last month saying star clusters feel more honest somehow. Like you're just seeing the stars as they actually are, not filtered through gas and dust. Nebulas can look like a screensaver sometimes. Clusters just feel... pure.
The Pleiades cluster is about 440 light years away. But calling star clusters more honest seems like putting human feelings on space stuff. Nebulas have gas and dust because that's how stars form, not to trick us. It's like saying a forest is more honest than a foggy meadow. Both are just different things happening in space. Maybe we're overthinking how we look at pictures from telescopes.
Honestly my brain isn't complex enough for this... I just think the pretty space clouds look neat. Karenjenkins is probably right that I'm overthinking my own underthinking.