As Lou stated up there, the factory handles give it a more refined/elegant look Steve.
The homemade handles are cool as can be, and might work with a normal rectangular or square drawer, or with some plainer lumber, but in my personal OCDizm opinion, for what that's worth, they just look way too busy with the angled lines of the drawers, curly woods, contrasting plugs and trim strips. And, it's honestly not the handles themselves, but the big black spots on each of the handle screaming "HEY LOOK AT ME!!" that detract there on my part.