Cheers, I appreciate that.
Frankly, the claims about "insecurity" are the usual playbook of a sizeable number frequenting sites like Twitter etc., so I am not surprised by it, but equally, it's also par the course for certain elements on this forum. But I agree, it has little to do with "insecurities".
Their height was never implied in that art work. To dismiss the possibility that they are drawing feedback from sources they themselves have acknowledged drawing on because there was art from 2015 is rather myopic. Although they had a broad outline ready for the race, the details about the facial picks and height were likely not set in stone.
In essence, what you are saying is that it's "petty" if one has a preference for the typical sexual dimorphism in height (but I am guessing that doesn't run in the opposite direction, i.e. those who strongly wanted them to be shorter.) I'll be rather surprised if you say it's petty in both cases, as the latter didn't really seem to go challenged except by a minority of posters in this thread (which, to be abundantly clear, is not necessarily reflective of the proportions within the broader playerbase, where I'd expect which view is majority and which the minority to flip.) I'll agree with those saying it's not exactly a huge difference.
On the point of niche aesthetics being embraced because they are niche - perhaps it is the case for those who actually embrace them, but again, something being "niche" in and of itself usually won't suffice to draw much positive attention to it. Roegadyn females and Elezen (due to their proportions when compared to your typical elf) are both fairly "niche", and yet number between 1 to 3% of the playerbase, respectively. I don't imagine Viera males will settle at such figures, as they are designed to be aesthetically pleasing in other respects, but I sincerely doubt any high quality sort of polling/surveying will find that any substantial portion of their future players is drawn to them solely on account of being a "niche". It's not even prominent enough in their case to matter. It does annoy me a bit, but the bigger issue for me is that I don't really like their facial design.
A rather bold assumption.