and the cheese factor is tied to the quality and intent of the sound.

Electronic tones of early synths are perfectly acceptable; I love a lot of tracks that use Moogs effectively: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5K-uLgmfYY

Early/mid '70s electronic music from Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream et al isn't really my thing, but one thing it generally isn't is cheesy.

but as synth technologies got more and more refined, the 'cold' synth sounds of the 80s became a replacement for live instrumentation. I know it's become fashionable to look back on that music fondly but the new stuff imitating the old stuff sounds just as cheesy (to my ears) as the old stuff did the first time around.

Unfortunately it's not strictly a time limitation, and the same thing can still sound cheesy in otherwise timeless tunes. I remember seeing Toots live in fall 1991; I was disappointed he didn't have a horn section, but really turned off that the keyboardist played all the horn parts using generic horn sounds on his keyboards. RIP to the great man but I didn't love the show and that was largely the reason.

Another example where a cheese synth sound almost ruins an otherwise pleasant (if somewhat bland) song. The cheesy synths hit at 3:25 and I find them extremely jarring.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5K-uLgmfYY