[littl3chocobo]

this seems to be moving away from avatars and art and moving towards actual human faces which isn't quite the same at all, especially since the needs of the viewer is a bit different in each case. with aatars the faces change and so theme often becomes more important than facial distinction right away, in fact people seem quite willing to disregard faces if a theme matches close enough and 'body double' avatars are rarely told apart by the faces on them

i've also done some outside study and have noticed that identical faces are given a pass in both media and in individually purchased art. i have also seen and experienced individuals accepting the complete removal of distinct facial features when images are small enough as long as the integrity of the profile is maintained and it is done almost entirely through hair

of course if you watch anime you'll notice this all of the time. a specific face is picked for a few different characters and they are instead made distinct through colours and haircuts(which makes sense if you are trying to reduce workload especially since you cannot be lazy with hair regardless of the work in the face). as long as the emotions track correctly the rest means very little