My father hated this movie so much because it was one of the first Dolby features he ever saw, and this scene was accompanied by the most extreme, nausea-inducing bass.
The Guild Steersmen were unnecessarily grotesque, just like the Harkonnen heart-plugs. It discernibly diminished Lynch's vision.
I dunno, I thought the visual grotesquery of the steersmen was wonderful; they certainly were already conceived of as grotesque in Herbert's work, if not described to this specific detail, and that was part of Herbert's picture of the length to which humanity would go to change itself in pursuit of growth/success/power/ability in the very long now of the Dune universe. The Bene Gesserit are no less strange, arguably; they just don't wear it on their sleeves so much. And so on.
The Guild Steersmen were unnecessarily grotesque, just like the Harkonnen heart-plugs. It discernibly diminished Lynch's vision.