Character graphical changes are NOT in an acceptable state, please make it optional

[Scintilla]

I think a lot of this has to do with hindsight. In hindsight, yes I can immediately spot the alluded dimples in the official picture. But that's because I now recognise it due to the much clearer example from the player's benchmark screenshot.

The dimples here are so weird that they make the lower jaw almost seem like a marionette's jaw. Now that I know about it I can perceive it in the official picture too but the angle and - ha -the lighting in this picture seem so optimal and staged that it was easy to overlook without any knowledge or idea what it would possibly look like ingame most of the time.

You know the 'L' word is forbidden here, right?

The lighting definitely seems different between the example image and the player's one. As I said, the shadows and contrast on the player's image seem somewhat stronger, emphasizing these particular features which they dislike. Whether this shadow difference is entirely down to lighting or not, I'm not sure. The lighting in the CC is terrible anyway, so comparison images using anything taken there needs to taken with a grain of salt. I think it's safe to presume that by this point the player has already run the benchmark and found they still dislike how it appears in there too. And the lighting there would be different, so there may be some other factor at play. Though exactly what (graphics settings, selected features/face shape) we don't really know.

Also, please also keep in mind this is a different face option. (I don't know if it matters but it's the base used for Y'shtola too, so who knows, perhaps they were extra careful here to preserve her character.)
We know that some options are more affected than others. This face preset looking good does not negate all the examples where it went south.

For example some of the au ra may not look as mangled and marionette-like as the miqo in those screenshots but their faces still does look different.

I would agree that it could simply be down to differences between the player's choices of features and those used in the example. What might have looked very flattering on one model might not appear the same on another. Again, I mentioned this:

One thing I would say is that the shadows are deeper on your benchmark than on the examples, leading to a greater contrast at those dimpled areas making them appear very slightly more pronounced. But this is shadow - not structural. That could be any number of reasons: positioning? lighting? settings? an unfortunate consequence of your own choice of lip shape compared to that of the example?