All of your examples sound a lot like what these things sound in real life. Yes, there's hack foley work but the reality is that these aren't arbitrary sounds. You don't need an actual horse to get horse sounds.
I think you're shooting for some idealized authenticity argument here that just doesn't work. I work in a tourist area where horses walk on cobblestone. Yeah it sounds exactly like what the foley guys do with coconuts. Its uncanny. Also in the digital age, a lot of foley work are samples of real sounds. We don't have guys in sound booths making new sounds anymore with gadgets and old shoes and such, outside of edge cases.
I know everyone likes to feel clever when they identify a popular sound, but most of the times those are intentional homages and you have to consider that millions of sounds you don't recognize. Its not all from some static library of 1930s foley artists punching meat and knocking together coconuts anymore.
I think you're shooting for some idealized authenticity argument here that just doesn't work. I work in a tourist area where horses walk on cobblestone. Yeah it sounds exactly like what the foley guys do with coconuts. Its uncanny. Also in the digital age, a lot of foley work are samples of real sounds. We don't have guys in sound booths making new sounds anymore with gadgets and old shoes and such, outside of edge cases.
I know everyone likes to feel clever when they identify a popular sound, but most of the times those are intentional homages and you have to consider that millions of sounds you don't recognize. Its not all from some static library of 1930s foley artists punching meat and knocking together coconuts anymore.