Please forgive me quoting myself, but I was intrigued what changes have caused my character to be this different for me.
Here are my investigations, which made me accept the changes more readily.
Anatomically I don't believe there is anything to pinpoint. Maybe there is a slight tilt of the head, maybe the shape of the forehead is a little different, or maybe the lips are more uniquely defined in the original or more plump in the new, but I believe it's mostly - if not entirely - the new lighting that is causing me to perceive the face to be different, shorter for example. (And the skin shade change doesn't help, but that's not an issue and could be easily adjusted, if I wanted.)
Otherwise, I believe there are 2 main differences and 1 minor in the textures:
- outer eye shape: on the original both the eyeliner line and the embedded shadow above it go upwards, and in the benchmark, downwards.
- inner eye texture (minor): on the original, the inner eye looks more open, as the texture lines there are a little bit farther away from the actual white of the eyes and they go more upwards there than out.
- mouth: (the mouth is open in the original and) both lips have a more unique shape. Also in the original the mouth is wider, because the texture didn't seem to end at the actual corner of the mouth. - I think it was the right choice to correct this last bit though.
So overall I do think it would approximate the original character (and personality) more if the texture around the eyes were tweaked - opening up the inner parts and lifting the outer. The mouth could be tweaked as well so that it would be more unique, but I don't think it would change the face as much as the eyes.
But otherwise, I do believe they made good and realistic choices to upgrade the character. Maybe all we have to do is to get used to those parts that seem different. (And maybe, just maybe hope the devs consider some little tweaks

)