With the higher textures and shadows, the game does look a bit different IMO. Like, for an example, in hate, the lines on the wall going up look a tad different. So when someone says "don't go past _________" or you say it to someone else, if you don't have the same textures or are both not using the texture pack, some things will look a bit different.

better graphics is not classic

Shadows also can help with pulling, makes it so you don't need to do as much crazy camera work to figure out where the mobs are.