Hi there,
To honest, there is no easy answer here. It is all dependent on your investment profile. Typically, there are three types of investors - value, income and growth. There are also different variations of these. Naturally, all three have very different characteristics. For example, some that employ a dividend growth strategy may not care about share price appreciation - their sole focus is on income (and growing said income). You see this a lot as investors near retirement and rely on dividend income to support their lifestyle. They look for safe and reliable dividends first - capital appreciation is second.
There is also no perfect formula. A stock with a high yield and low growth rate may be more appealing to some as income today is their first priority. Some may prefer a lower yield with a higher dividend growth rate - typically a high dividend growth rate is a sign of higher growth. In this case, your likely to get both income + capital appreciation.
Each individual investors has their own set of goals (at least they should!). If you are more concerned on generating income today, then I can see how a 1.5% yield growing at 5% may not be attractive. However, the company maybe be forgoing dividend growth because it is investing in growth opportunities. So the company finds it a better us of cash to grow the company. This likely means the company thinks it can return more in capital appreciation.
Bottom line, it is important for investors to have a plan. As an example, i have two portfolios (a pure growth and a dividend growth). In my dividend growth portfolio, the lower the yield, the higher the dividend growth rate. If the yield is higher, I am ok with having a lower dividend growth rate.
Hope this makes sense. Happy to discuss further.
Mat