I vehemently disagree with this.
Is it different? Yes.
Is that change inherently bad? No.
Looking at the image you shared comparing all of the skulls/faces from CE to H2A… yeah, um, it’s by far the most impressive. The wide separation of the eyes in addition to how close they sit to their mandibles in CE/H2 gives them this almost derpy “wahhh!” look – like I can hear this Waluigi/Wario-esque sound emanating from them. But there are changes throughout, which is no different with H2A. Let’s actually compare them in depth. I’ll mostly ignore CE because we can’t see the skull.
Between 2 & 3, there’s a pretty significant change in the brows. Namely, in H2, their brow ridge is extremely defined and jut out a considerable amount which imo, contributes greatly to that aforementioned slight derpiness. This is absent in H3 where they have no discernible brow ridge and as a result, they look a bit more “serious.” This is a pretty significant change to completely ignore. In CE/H2, the insides of their mouths are also BRIGHT orange while this was never the case again, starting with H3 but let’s chalk that up to better graphics offering more realistic coloring just to be nice. The texture is also completely different on their skin. You completely ignored that in your post and instead talked about their armor which has no bearing on their anatomy but I’ll bring the armor back up toward the end. Also, CE Elites had straighter silhouettes and it was Halo 2 that hunched them over more dramatically for gameplay balancing in multiplayer.
As you said, Reach is a drastic change and is, imo, the second most drastic after H4/5. While you mentioned the mandibles acting differently in Reach, you neglected to mention that now, the lower set seems to jut out much more when usually the upper jaw juts out further in the first three games. Changed brow ridges, changed lower jaw… these are all fairly important and large changes. On top of that, instead of having a reasonable amount of teeth as they did in the original trilogy and in H2A, their mouths are a maw of about a million -Yoink- teeth. It’s terrifying, sure, but it also makes next to no sense for elegant Elites to be monstrous creatures in that way.
Halo 4/5 are absurd. More than differently sloped skulls, more or less pronounced brow ridges, over/under bite mandibles, their physiology is just far too different in skull alone, never mind their hulking proportions. It just doesn’t make sense from an evolutionary perspective because their mouth and teeth are around and in front of their eyes… they have to be EXTRA careful to avoid blinding themselves when they speak or eat.
That brings us to H2A… these Elites imo, are the ones that most immediately strike in me a sense of honor. First off, their pronounced brow ridge is BACK from the original Halo 2 – something that was dropped in H3, Reach, & 4/5. That’s an aspect closer to the original design. The eyes have been raised much more than ever before BUT, as I mentioned, this further alleviates the “wahhhhh!” surprised look of the original design. On the subject of the eyes, the placement is between Reach’s forward facing eyes and the original side facing eyes – that’s a happy way to split the difference. While you made excuses for Reach’s design, the mandibles return to having at least a slight over bite compared to the full on under bite that Reach Elites had. Also… just look at those eyes. They’re far closer to the originals than Reach’s which you claimed preserved the same general look. H2A does the same and, imo, adheres a lot closer to the original design. The texture of the skin is also between H2’s and Reach’s.
I will concede that the elongated back of it – that sort of hunchback/extended neck/possibly part of the skull area goes down rather than up. But here’s why I bring up the armor… these issues are next to impossible to see when in armor and that imo is a key difference. The reason we didn’t care about the changes, small AND big, in the other games is because they generally looked the same in armor. Reach Elites definitely looked different at slightly more than a glance but still looked basically the same. The issue with 4/5 is that the changes were so drastic, even a passing glance at them while they wore their armor was enough to go “wtf???” H2A on the other hand still looks like an Elite while in armor and I actually think the fin jutting straight back looks way cooler, more stealthy, aerodynamic (and thus sleeker), and more elegant than the way it pointed up at an angle before.
Ultimately, when you look at this image: https://i.redd.it/c5p38zosli921.jpg , they all look extremely similar save for one… maybe two: the Halo 4/5 design overall & Halo Wars due to the exaggerated proportions. That image also shows how H2A actually returned the Elites’ feet back to their original hoof design rather than the bigger, flatter, more human style foot with an arch that began a bit with Halo 3, then was pushed further with Wars & Reach, and then carried over to CEA & 4/5.
