> In the same image, the pedestrians up top do have crisply drawn features
The are supposed to have them, in order to match the figure where the joke is.
Larson jokes are in big part visual jokes: he draws intentionally so that a reader has to "look around" in the picture until he "gets it." And that is what makes the "click" and that deep "ooooh" effect.
For that to function the "level of attention" has to be "manipulated". The cars in the front are allowed to be "out of focus" but the part of the picture "in focus" should not "give out" too soon the gag.
So the cartoon functions correctly, the "direction" inside of the cartoon is brilliant. The cartoon is however, I admit, more "raw" than what would be expected from some kinds of products (e.g. it's not something that would end up being in an ad, for example, exactly because some people have some specific expectations). But it's the real Larson and everything is where is should be. And he also wrote that he's "just exploring, experimenting, and trying stuff."
Yes. The goal is the opposite of not having that blurred.
If you expected something else... it's not him, it's you, expecting the hard lines over which the watercolor is applied. This is simply not that.