"And even in the novel it sits weirdly, IMO - it's a bit of a fantasy-blindness aesthetic; there's always blind people with bandaged eyes in wuxia and xianxia, but this isn't that."

Hahah, now that you said it, maybe that's exactly what he was going for, on purpose. xD Because of the line that says that the ghost army only looked so majestic because ZYL imagined it this way, otherwise it would just look like youchu. So maybe he just likes dramatic fantasy aesthetic and was excited to try it out here too. xD And then he takes the bandage off and goes with sunglasses anyway, so I guess it was more inconvenience than it's worth, lol.