It was necessary, but mainly texture upscaling due to all the pixelation.

This was done, but in addition to that we got polygon changes to the face which shifted facial features for no reason. And lightning, shader etc. changes that turned skin very weird and unrealistic and eyes lifeless.

In general it feels like facial changes were not tested properly because some changes are so bad if you show the pictures to random people of the street they think old one is upgraded version.