I dunno, is it just me, or does anyone else find them not that appealing ?

I always thought it was High Dynamic Range, producing a final image that is a result of merging several frames at different exposures to get a balanced image that covers more stops than a sensor or film can record. I hadn't seen too many images of this type before getting on here, and to me, most of them just look like highly saturated images with unrealistic colour. Some get the range of exposure, but still have way too much colour, and others, well, just colour and nothing else, still black in the shadows and over exposed in the high-lights.

So what is it really supposed to be ?
(this is a serious question, not a dig, so please be nice)