The recommended distance "madness" comes from the fact that
1) if you go too close (relatively), you'll have to start physically moving/tilting your head to change the part you're watching at
2) your eyes are good for focusing on the middle, unfortunately your peripheral vision isn't as attentive
This one isn't actually an official factor, but will come into play in any case: IPS glow, VA gamma shift, TN's weak viewing angles, (might be others, not sure what PLS does, apparently similar to IPS...?)
I didn't even yet mention the recommended distance for movie watching, which is 1.5-2.0x the diagonal, IIRC.
So yes, there are indeed logical reasons for not sitting too close to the monitor.
If you're forgiving any one aspect, it just means you're making compromises to accommodate some other feature. Which I won't say is a wrong thing to do, because different people value different things.
edit:
Furthermore, your phone has a PPI of 267. So it's only natural that it looks sharper from the same distance, if you're comparing it to a 27" @2560x1440, with a PPI of 109...