To be clear, this is entirely an aesthetic argument on my part, akin to "Seaport is soulless" or "South End row houses look pretty" or "street-walls are good". Maybe it's not worth the expense to remediate, but it's unfathomable, personally, to pay like $600/sf to live on a street that looks like it's running illegal power and cable from house to house.
Verging on the unrelated, but does anyone know if Back Bay and other late-19th century developments used to have exposed lines that were then buried, or something else? It's just jarring to see in otherwise "cool" or expensive parts of the city.