I don't totally agree with you on that. I know this Nexus it's a particular universe, but each character or building in it is quite specific, and if you take the "alliance" buildings, for example, they could totally fit in a Wacraft IV game / art direction. You're right with your footman example, but W3 and WoW were…
Eager to see what's the stylized PBR will look like. That's something we don't see often, but the rare good examples we've seen were promising. I love the handpainted diffuse only style but maybe it's time to go deeper ^^.