I figured that he had it painted and prettied up on the way to Earth. It's a few days, and the gold color reflects his new position as the de-facto leader of the Covenant Separatists.

: I personally feel like Chief's is less so, and was just made
: to be more realistic . (I feel like I read how if his armor was designed
: like Halo 1, moving around would kind of be an issue). For me, that didn't
: bother me.

There's a few changes that can be excused as "Giving him more mobility", but the vast majority of it was change for the sake of an artist's self-expression.

Changes to improve the Chief's mobility:
-Spaulders are moved further down the arm, leaving the shoulder uncovered.
-The waistband armor is removed.

Changes implemented so an artist could express his creative freedom:
-Everything else.
-And by everything else, I mean the helmet, chest piece, the codpiece we fought so hard for, and the armor on his forearm and gauntlet.

: I think 343 has learned, or are surely learning, to explain things before
: significant artistic liberties occur. The new Jackals in Halo 4 are
: actually new Jackals now, versus artistic liberties. Canon wise.

We've pointed out again and again and again, the Jackals can't possibly have such a drastic physiological difference within the same genus unless their biology operates on fundamentally different processes than Earth-based life. It's like the risible explanation for the Chief's new armor, or the justification for the new Grunt armor (It improves visibility! Even if they have a pipe that runs across one eye before ramming up their nose). These explanations are just afterthoughts, fig leaves.

Is 343i getting better at it? I hope so, but the fact that the H2A Warthogs have the new, obsolete, 20th-century suspensions indicates that they're only going to be faithful to the old designs when they know people are going to raise a ruckus over it.