Yes, we can. A couple of years ago I drove through Maine and Vermont, and it was absolutely beautiful. Not only because of the natural beauty of those places, but because of the lack of billboards anywhere. It was nice to just enjoy the scenery without being constantly bombarded by ads. The city of São Paulo also banned ads a while back and it made the city a nicer environment to live in and revealed the beauty of some of the architecture that was previously hidden by masses of billboards.
I'm not quite that old - but back that far, there was far less pavement. Far more dust and mud. And far more excrement from horses and other livestock.
However obnoxious it might look, today's streetscape pollution lacks the odor, flies, and infectious disease hazards of yesteryear.
Even as recently as a few decades ago. I grew up just as leaded gasoline was being phased out, catalytic converters were becoming normal, and fuel injection was taking over from carburetors. The air generally smells much better these days.
I wonder if we can say the same about our streets (billboards, neon signs, etc etc) compared to, say, streets 200 years ago?