That's sad.
I was captivated by the first version of the game, and strong changes in the heroine's appearance so far sound like something bad to me. I honestly don't really understand the problem the developers had to face, so I can't say for sure, but it seems to me that the protagonist's face could have been left untouched. She looked like a very nice young girl, now she looks more mature, which is certainly not a bad thing, but a certain naivety(?) in her eyes has disappeared. Judging by the preview image, we still play for attractive girl, which is good, but it's just more of a different character, not the one with whom we passed our first path, which awake slight disappointment. Although, of course, the final opinion can be formed only after seeing everything in the game. But since you say that future updates will also lead to a loss of progress, I'd rather wait for the stable version. The additional protagonist also looks like a dark horse, this can be both good and bad. The fact that he is a male character is probably still for the worse, as given my first exposure to this game, I wanted to keep playing as Francesca and not be disturbed by other protagonists. I've seen a few games with multiple protagonists in the lead role, and half the time it didn't look good. But maybe this one it will be for the better?
I also wrote a big post after my first playthrough of the game (3 page), where I offered mostly tips about quality of life changes that could improve the quality of the game. I don't know if they've been taken into account in the new version, but I hope that all the changes the developers are making now won't backfire. Because so far I see a lot of negative reaction to the update. And this is sad, because I really liked the first version of the game despite its raw look.
Don't take my words as hard critique, as I said, it's not my final opinion, I would like to play your game in the future, when I will know for sure that I won't lose my progress.