I personally felt like his Tiny Desk sucked, he needs the auto tune. They have much better ones, Anderson Paak, Megan Thee Stallion and Mac Miller are all absolutely phenomenal.
I obviously disagree about this one sucking, but all 3 of those are amazing.
One place this one differs from a lot of other great Tiny Desks is that he sounds very different from his songs, where the others may sound stripped down, but the sing isn't really changed that much. His style relies so much on production effects, it makes sense he can't simulate that in the NPR studio.
That said, I personally think he still sounds great. It just changes up how he hasto perform a lot. I think I get where you are coming from though.