If the girl next door has the same body type as elven ranger, or magically improved sorceress - you need to ask yourself a question - what's the point?
Old style Thea was also prettier than childhood friend the alchemist, and half of the amazonian type mercs from the guild. Your point? Just because she is from lower strata where average should logically be uglier than enhanced humans and non-humans the one that got fated with MC should also be the average?
Are you being serious right now? These are photos of models. "Early style Thea was around 20-25%." only because of T&A - body like that requires exercising specific parts of muscles, not just physical work. Peasant women were usually rather "stocky", as it helped surviving both heavy work and labor in primitive conditions (not to mention it helped you not to freeze in poorly heated housing). Those who were slim usually did not survive. It's pure genetics.
Your point kinda misses the fact that most pesants and serfs were a bit malnurished than stocky trough the history. So the only thing unrealistic about Thea is her being a bit taller, not having a good figure in original style.
As for genetic "averages", women from lower startas tended to get occasional, if not regular attention from men from higher stratas, so - larger villages usually had those "abnormally atractive ones"(most likely born because local lord or pass trough bard took someone to a pound town) serve local lords, lower nobility and important guests during visits, if vlillage was large enough, to make sure no one goes for already married ones, too young ones, and those that only have chastity going for them. Abnormally atractive village girls got chances to become mistereses and servants to someone from higher stratas that likes them enough, village chiefs got their pimp's due from satisfied guests, and average village men arent getting cucked, everybody wins. So Thea both not being forced to work as much as the rest, and getting good with tavern work fast is a natural progression.
Again, I fully understand being upset about art style change, but I don't agree with bashing decent art, only because it's not to someone's preference.
And i understand that you may enjoy the new one, but the old clean and minimalistic one clashes waaaaay too much with new overlined one that is too rich with gloss spots, makes every girl it was applied to look chubbier, and somehow manages to show oversized buttholes from angles that are impossible without a much larger oversexualization if not fetishization, than slim model like figures of old style ever were. Like, if we are talking realism, to see chuby gilrl's anus so clearly and in full from the angle that was shown for Gabe's bath pic, she would litterally need to unclench it on purpose and hold those cheeks open with both hands as she turns to you.
It would have been way more tastefull of a move to introduce the new guy on the team by making him do new or unexplore characters lioe that dwarf girl, to see how fans and supporters like him, instead of making him redraw the core cast just because bunis, like every other artist focused on self-improvment, is a bit insecure about his earlier works.
I like Bunis's art, way more than whatever this is, even when you compare older pieces with the best new guy can bring to the table. And if feels like slow erasure of his art and with it, the game I used to love and support, that doesnt need to happen.