You will always face many choices when purchasing modern furniture, some of the choices are subjective, some are objective which need to to make a choice. So if you want to buy a contemporary lounge chair for your living room, then how to measure beauty and practicability.
If you have to choose one between two, different people would have different choice. If you just want to own a lounge area, the practicability is absolutely your first choice. But if the lounge chair is just one of your decoration to set off modern style of home design, beauty is the main element that you should consider.
Actually things is not that complex as you think, there have the best of both world. Through the years, furniture have both beauty and practicability is not so much of a problem. Some successful masterpiece are good examples. Like the Eames lounge chair, which can bring you extraordinary feeling, and have a elegant and classic appearance.
I'm not sure that if it can be in effect in any other industries. But it will be work and can give some different feeling for you. So either as a furniture designer or a buyer, we can't be restricted by the traditional mind, or there wouldn't have Eames lounge chair and Barcelona chair.