Yeah, the Jackals got a major overhaul. They were still obviously Jackals to me. The Chief's armor changed quite a bit; it's still obviously the Master Chief. So what does it matter? You know what things are supposed to be.

Again, it just doesn't bother me. I don't think there's anything wrong with changing up an art style, and as I said, I actually like seeing different takes on everything.

And, "it's a new model" is absolutely a lazy explanation. I'm not saying it's not a good one. They changed the design of the Master Chief between Halo 1 and 2 because they wanted to make him look better, and came up with the "new model" explanation after the fact (probably). 343i did the same thing, only because of the situation the Master Chief was in, they couldn't really come up with a good in-universe explanation. They should limit themselves artistically and creatively and be stuck with an old design just because the Master Chief is stuck on a ship that they didn't put him on in the first place? I can totally see where folks are coming from in that it doesn't make sense in-universe, but I don't think it has to.

I guess I can't really articulate how I feel very well. As long as the object or character is still clearly what it's supposed to be, I don't sweat the details.