Personally I loved the remastered H2A Elite designs. The added reptilian details made them look cooler and I overall had no issues with the armor look or the design of the helmets or even their faces. Even the Halo 4 and 5 Elites look ok to me, but that's just my opinion.
Hmm... If you prefer the reptilian (saurian) changes, then that's fine. It's all subjective. Of course, I can't stand them. Outside of simply not liking the newer rough, scaly and thorny elements of them and the weaker, snake-like aspects, I simply dislike the inconsistency. Bungie had designed every Covenant to look distinct from one another. The Kig-Yar were lizard-like while the Sangheili were smooth, elegant, leathery warriors with shark-like faces and pointed helmets. Its jarring to play through the Halo trilogy and have H2A's Elites stand out so much from the others.
Well, remember, when the original Halo 2 was made, the engines the games were made on were still super simple. Not quite 80's and 90's simple, but there were many textures you'd never notice simply because of how the models are made. It's very likely Bungie may have intended the Elites to look far more lizard like than they ended up being, even the Jackals didn't look very lizard like in Halo 2 original.
If your prefer the more shark like look, then I can respect and understand that.
Jump into Halo 3 and look closely at the Elites. There are some really good images in the video game guide that show what I'm talking about if you've got it. They're very smooth, slippery and eel-like. Look at the Jackals in the same game. They're hard, scaly and pterosaur in appearance. It's already a stretch to say Bungie couldn't make their Elites lizard-like in 2004, but there's definitely no excuse in 2007. Besides, if they could get the Jackals to look reptilian in Halo CE, why wouldn't they be able to get the Elites lizard-like as well if that was what they intended? Well, it's because that's not what they intended. Even your Halo 2 Jackals were very clearly saurian while the Elites were not. See here. What makes you say "It's very likely Bungie may have intended the Elites to look far more lizard like"? What makes it so very likely? It seems to me that you've pulled that idea out of thin air purely because you like 343i's lizard-like Elites. It's fine if you like them, but there's literally nothing to suggest that Bungie wanted them to be saurian in any way.
Easy now, I'm not throwing my idea into everyone's face. I looked at the pictures and to me it doesn't look LIKE it was what they initially went for. Because when I think lizard, I think rough, durable scales almost like dinosaurs most are familiar with. Halo 2's Jackals to ME look like smoothish skin with slight tears for glands or whatever they were going for with those blister looking parts on the Jackals faces.
To me, they don't look reptilian at all, they look like featherless birds honestly. And that's what 343 ends up reinforcing when they remake Halo 2, is that they're avian but less lizard like than I suppose what most people assumed. That could just be 343i's preference.
Please don't attack me because of how I see things. :/ Not everyone sees things the way you do. What might look reptilian to one may look completely different to others, especially when it comes to older graphics of games.
Like I said: if you prefer the eel or shark like design, that's FINE. I'm not saying everyone has to prefer the lizard look because of what I see or like. In fact, nowhere did I EVER say that the lizard look is the correct look. It's just the look
I prefer.
As for what Bungie may have been intending? Who even knows? I mean they had to rush Halo 2 out the door because they were running out of time and had to cut many things and go for what they had at the time. I don't work for Bungie. Never have. I can't speak for them.
