I've heard songs that were injured by this but I've also heard songs that had more chords than they needed and did better with less pretentious chord progressions.

I agree with that - there are some songs where I've deliberately 'simplified' the arrangement when compared to the one I've copied it from, because I think the over-complicated arrangement detracts from the song (as opposed to those where I've merely done it because I can't play all the chords ;-))