> because I definitely remember pixels being visible when I was growing up
Was this on an LCD or CRT display? Because on a CRT, you can't really see the pixels [0] [1], so what you were seeing was probably the shadow mask instead [2]. You could definitely see the pixels on old LCD monitors though, and new LCD monitors too if you look really close, although even big LCD pixels aren't quite as prominent as the shadow mask is on a CRT.
You can definitely see pixels on PC monitor CRTs where the shadow mask was much finer than the display resolution. PC monitors were not the same as TVs with nontrivial tech deviations between them.
Was this on an LCD or CRT display? Because on a CRT, you can't really see the pixels [0] [1], so what you were seeing was probably the shadow mask instead [2]. You could definitely see the pixels on old LCD monitors though, and new LCD monitors too if you look really close, although even big LCD pixels aren't quite as prominent as the shadow mask is on a CRT.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-pixel_display
[1]: https://alvyray.com/Memos/CG/Microsoft/6_pixel.pdf#page=8
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_mask