Should art be realistic?

Continuing my exploration into So, why is this art? I will examine the third of the key points:
Should art be realistic?
The Contemporary explores this question thusly:

Realistic art depicts or represents the visual world as closely as possible. Since the Renaissance in Europe until the beginning of the modern era, art has been valued for qualities that create an illusion of reality, such as light and shadow, proportion, and perspective... Even today, many judge art by its true-to-life quality, which can make appreciating artwork that is non-representational more challenging.

The idea of abstraction, in which artists alter the visual qualities of a subject, was a major development in modern art. There are many degrees of abstraction in art. Some artists made small changes in the look of their subject matter by simplifying or exaggerating colors or shapes... Others created images that do not realistically represent any object. This type of abstract art may be called nonrepresentational or nonobjective art. It may be composed of basic geometric shapes and forms or a complex arrangement of colors, shapes, textures, and lines.

This simplified history of abstract art doesn't seem to answer the question at hand to me. Most of these rather subjective topics have been explored by looking at what has happened in art over time and how people have come to see it anew, but this particular explanation seems somewhat abrupt. There is no real conclusion drawn linking back to the topic of whether art should be realistic.

Nonetheless, I don't really have much to add except that art doesn't have to be realistic to move people emotionally, and many people are drawn to certain colors, shapes, patterns and gestures or movements. Some things can be better explored or represented abstractly than in concrete realistic terms. Others benefit from having easily identifiable subject matter in order to get their point across or to connect with people. And sometimes it is the materials themselves and how they are applied that is of interest.

I am especially interested in works that encourage the viewer to see things in new and different ways, so I am personally drawn to varying levels of abstraction in which a subject may be identified but is explored in a non-traditional sense. I am also drawn to works in which subjects that would typically not be viewed as worthy of being immortalized in art are explored in a very traditional realistic manner. However, it is not as though I do not appreciate other things as well, and nonrepresentational works can encourage me to look at materials, colors, textures and other elements in new and different ways.