Agree, and this remains an issue in 2021 for both apps. Setting the map projection to the basemap's native scale and maximizing output resolution do help sometimes, at the cost of a bloated output file that requires post-processing in 3rd party apps to reduce the bloat without dunking the quality. Almost every time I attempt to use ESRI World Topo, end user: 'can we make the background less blurry?'