Love the DOF in this. I call that the PNW (Pacific North West) look. When your up here in the PNW you don't even have to edit it to get that look as it always overcast and bleak which was interesting when I moved to Canada from Australia which has a lot of deep vibrant aqua & blues on the coast and lots of beautiful vibrant red hues inland.
To answer your questions its nice as the lack of colour contrast in the faded look lets you focus on the textural contrast in a way similar to B&W but without loosing all the colour.
Thanks for the great reply, @intrepidphotos. That's interesting to hear about the colours up there. I liked your comment that you don't even have to edit them to look like that when up there.. :)
Yes my portfolio has shifted to those tones just moving up here ;-)