Went for cool. They've always looked under-wheeled as
@TheCracker mentions, but to me they've also always looked so much better on the road than they do in pictures, with a real hint of exotica to them.
Also, Bangle was head of BMW design, but most of the things from Bavaria that people associate him with were actually penned by Adrian "Scarf indoors" van Hooydonk.
I don't get the general Bangle-bashing, not least because those who deride him for BMW's styling direction don't realise he was also responsible for the E46 3-series that BMW nerds fap themselves to sleep over.
'Flame surfacing' and the like might have sprouted under Bangle's design leadership but it was simply a phase - and arguably, the cars produced during that era are more attractive than the cars BMW is producing now. To me an E90 3-series has much tauter proportions than an F30, for instance.
That, and styling changes. Beyond the Fiat Coupe and Bangle-era BMWs being related to the same person, there's basically no similarity to them whatsoever. Same goes for any other designer: Giorgetto Giugiaro did the curvy Fiat Dino coupe and the ultra-boxy Mk1 Golf, but it'd be completely daft to say of one:
Not surprising when you found out who 'styled' it.
...for instance. Ditto comparing the Mk1 Audi TT to say, the 2003-on Chrysler 300, neither of which are remotely similar to behold yet both were styled by Freeman Thomas. Styling trends are completely transient.