Gore and Violence, a staple to many dramatic scenes nowadays, why?

Question number four on the Oedipus the King Socratic Seminar was a very intriguing question and shows the changes of how peoples minds work over time.  I think nothing is lost by not showing the gore of Oedipus goring his eyes out.  The main point of his wounds were to show his mental anguish and what he was feeling.  Also by not showing the violence it left more up to the imagination of the viewer making it more terrible and dramatic.  If the violence and gore of his wounds were shown it would have taken away from the mental aspect of them, people would have been too focused on that.  The horror of it all is still shown by the servants reaction to what they saw, and his screams that would have been heard off stage.  I think it was great that they didn't show the violence because it put everything in perspective of how awful the situation was.
Thinking of this question in context of how people act today, I feel that not a lot of people would agree with what I said.  So many of today's movies and shows that have to deal with horror, drama, or action go in the exact opposite way of Oedipus, and not for a while now, but in just the past decade or two.  Horror movies are the biggest example of this in that movies from the 70's and 80's showed very little violence, but would show a victim being caught by the bad guy and screams of terror leaving all of what was happening up to the imagination of the view much like Oedipus' self inflicted wounds.  Nowadays movies show every bit of violence and gore and that is what now is accepted as scary and dramatic, and I have to ask why?  I feel that many people do not have the imagination that they once did thanks to things like CGI and other special effects which is sad because I feel you really aren't getting the full effect of the horror and drama then.
So all in all I feel that nothing at all was lost by not showing the violence of Oedipus' wounds, but instead was a terrific move by the author and let the viewer/reader experience the mental anguish and pain of Oedipus fully.  I also feel that is sad that people nowadays have moved away from that idea and feel that much is lost by showing everything possible.