Eh…I personally think some are being more forgiving to the Core deluxe figures because they are, aesthetically, more aligned with Studio Series and Generations and aren’t trying to replicate a stylized look like Prime, RiD2, Cyberverse and Earthspark.
As far as the Core vs Studio Series thing…I just think they ALL started from the same point in design. Given the response to Bumblebee’s design work, I’m inclined to think they stayed closer to their original designs longer than other films (which seemed to largely start from a car and work backwards to a name).
Core Cheetor’s beast mode is really not THAT far removed from the final design. But his robot mode, seemingly, got a major redesign much later in the development process. Core and Studio Airrazor shows a clear lineage that, to me, says Airrazor didn’t deviate THAT much in the design process.
But we’ve also seen enough of Optimus Primal to know that he didn’t start with a full placeplate, but it was ultimately added to the final robot mode (possibly leading to a reported delay in the release of the SS leader class). And the film will clearly not be as colorful as the Core/Kids lines.
But, I’m not sure if that was a true “development change” or Hasbro was taking some artistic liberties to make the broader toy line more enticing to average consumers.