BGS in California - Why are so many of them so *** ugly?

I've looked at a lot of photos of superhighways in California over the years. Some of the highways are marvels of engineering. However, I just can't get over how BAD so many of the big green signs on those highways look.

Many of the signs are just plain old and falling apart. There's no shortage of signs where old, existing displays have been patched over with some new information. Lots of them are very DIRTY.

It seems understandable why some signs are just covered with dirt and grime. At least that holds true on major routes like I-405 in Los Angeles, where up to 400,000 vehicles per day pump their exhaust up at those displays. But even in a lot of lesser traveled areas of the state many of the BGS are really dirty looking.

Does the salt water of the nearby Pacific Ocean play any part in the dirty appearance of so many BGS displays in California?

And then there's the issue of the layout on many of these signs. I have no shortage of criticism of Oklahoma DOT and the OK Turnpike Commission for some of the odd-ball compositions happening on that state's road signs. But California is right up there as well. Sure, a huge I-5 sign with four downward pointing arrows is pretty cool. But study MUTCD specs and then look at some of the weird layouts happening on many other signs. I cannot stand their treatment of popping in exit number listings as an after thought in upper corners on newer, retro-reflective signs.

No state has a perfect track record in laying out its highway sign legends. IMHO, states like Arizona and Texas seem to be far more consistent in how the sign layouts are composed. They have a better sense of order to them.

Another thing I've noticed is California has a lot of ugly looking overhead sign gantrys. Not all of them are ugly, but there's quite a hodge podge of different sign structure systems in use. It seems like the most eye-appealing sign structures are found in other states besides California (such as Texas for example).
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