To get an example of what I meant you just need to take a look at the post I quoted in my reply above yours. Someone mentioning that the fanart of the Nevada outfit would make for good modern outfit...while failing to realize that it was one of the original outfit that Lara wore in 1998 in TRIII.
Additionally, if I were to judge media based on its depiction by the press, I would miss a lot of stuff that has been willingly miconstrued, like the aforementioned Jennifer's Body. Your point about Lara's depiction in the magazines you posted is moot; those covers are reflective of the editor's attitude toward the character, rather than the character itself.
Clearly, you are unfamiliar with the community around the classic games, if you think it is made by "vocal incels". The community is one of the most diverse that there is, as far as bit IPs go. You'll find everyone, from kids who discover the classic titles for the fist time today, to adult who grew up with them in the 90's. Some of the most well known custom level creators for TRIV are in fact women.
In regards to the original devs, and the presumed need to sex-up Lara that they felt in order to achieve success...you are misinformed on this point as well. Firstly, Core design was well-aware of the smash hit success that TR would become, as soon as they witnessed the reactions to their E3 demo. Certainly they could not predict that one day (not that far away actually) Lara would have her own movie and would be potrayed by an academy award winner actress, but they were not oblivious to the revolutionary potential the game had either.
Secondly, many women, including Heather Gibson who was one of the most important level designers on the original titles (and actually the person who created the very first lever for the TRI prototype), were involved in the creation of the original games. It seems to me that claiming that Lara was merely a product designed to entice the male audience, and that all the positive attributes she had were mere unintentional side effects, is to discount the importance that these people had in the development of the IP. Which is not something the community is new to, unfortunately, since at the time of the SotTR release it was claimed that the writer of the reboot trilogy was the first woman to be involved in the development of the games (Heather also took care of keeping the lore of the gamed updated and provided ideas for where the sequels should go, story-wise).
You fail to see the distinction you speak of because you are yourself unwilling to see past the wall of false information that has been built around the original games, for the sake of elevating the newer ones to heights that would appear much more modest if they were to be compared with the classic TR games.
If you want to know about the development of all the TR games, I recommend this
book . But unfortunately it has never been translated in English, as far as I know.
With that said, I would ask you to engage in the conversation I had started in my original post, i.e. take a look at the pics I posted and tell me: what is wrong about that design? Forget the crude implementation due to the hw constraints, or the renders made by the PR department, and focus on the design. I see nothing wrong with it, and the fact that it's become the number one excuse to bash the old games and to shoot down people's positive opinion about them is reflective of how clueless most detractors are
EDIT: the pushback you speak of came from people who had barely touched the original games. It's nothing new that people on the internet would vocally express their opinions on something they don't care about only for the sake of attacking authors and artists whose view do not coincide with their own (and happend to be on the more progressive end of the spectrum)
