Perhaps you are over thinking this.
You as an individual human looks at an image.
Based upon your long established preferences in life, what you like and enjoy, you view the image and feel indifferent, or you dislike it, or you like it.
Why does it need to be any more complex than that?
No further thinking should be required.
This is the problem with most of the art world.
It's not what it is, it's who did it that we use to add or reduce value.
Show an art expert a picture and if they find out it was painted be a young child just messing around, it's rubbish, but if it's painted by some long dead person who was famous for various things in his life, it's amazing.