I agree that the "real" hair, when sculpted well, can make it look more like a miniature, real human. But even in the very best case it still won't look 100% like a miniature person, and something will be off about it. When it tries to get so close but doesn't, there can actually be a kind of creepy "uncanny valley" unpleasantness when seeing something. That isn't always the case with this figure, though when the hair isn't done very precisely and very well it can be revealed pretty quickly. I noticed that on a Pattinson sculpt someone was posting about recently on this forum where it was off-putting and disturbing to me on a gut level.
So aesthetically, I generally prefer sculpted even when the real hair is styled very well, as the last photo here shows. That's subjective of course but there is a certain charm in sculpted hair on these dolls when it is done well. I often do enjoy having toys with distinctive toy characteristics. The stylistic choices and craftsmanship of how they are sculpted are also things to be appreciated. Same goes for the various Jokers we have seen over the years and Pattinson Batman.
I say this having a figure with real hair on my display (Cheungkinmen's Teen Wolf), so I can appreciate that in some circumstances. But personally I think it works better on something a bit fantastic like Beetlejuice or Teen Wolf. I do think the Gandalf looks terrific, and in that case the sculpted hair might be distracting because it would be so overwhelming. But in that case it also looks so wacky and fantastic with all the hair that it isn't going to run into issues that you get trying to do realistic, typical hair situation.
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