It's a post for a future date, but to me, an Easter Egg only works if it has a meaning and fits in the context of the story. The hints about the snitch in Reservoir Dogs, the clues in Fight Club, the hidden language in Futurama, they all fit in the context of the story. Just tossing in a hint of another movie might be cute (the hat from Spinal Tap showing up in the kid's room in The Princess Bride) but to have something that just doesn't fit annoys me.
I think part of the problem is that CG is a lot easier these days, allowing people to cram as many details as they want into any given scene. You start needing to fill every empty spot or it feels like a waste of space. I think this takes away from certain films, because you can get overwhelmed by the constant flood of information. Video games have the same issue sometimes, where they spend so much time making sure it's as detailed and gorgeous as possible, but the game play suffers.
Then something simple comes along and shocks the system by remembering just how great something can be without needing to cram everything possible into a scene. Such is the case with The Tale of Princess Kaguya, quite possibly the most gorgeous and visually stunning movie I've seen since Life of Pi.
