Ah, OK... if the expressions aren't changing in the promos then it comes back to the shape of the mouth. That combines 2 of my gripes into 1! The mouth shape is definitely realistic, but not one I find particularly attractive, so back to my comment on buyer's aesthetic preferences.

The hair is probably down to just the scene and lighting and was just an opinion. I don't pay a lot of attention to hair in promos because the hair isn't part of what's being sold (usually). BTW, I do read the editorials, the promo blurb at the bottom, and all the promo images when buying. I think the more info available the better. I resist buying on single promo images because 'just occasionally' I don't get the product I was expecting.

By 'flat' lighting I mean lacks contrast. I'm not a fan of IBL and 'light sets', I just use IDL. Again, my own preference. Nothing at all to do with the characters, so ignore me on that one... I can't put my finger on what it is... maybe the textures and lighting made them look 'cartoony'? Hmmm... maybe if I add something as a point of comparison and let others rip into my image there may be some more specific feedback...

This is a test render of a Laura 3 character after applying a new skin texture and Snarly's EZSkin. Not at all meant as a promo, but lit and rendered to show her in as natural a lighting as possible. The hair is also just as old a mesh, but I used the new subdivision function to increase the poly count and remove the obvious jaggies for this close up. Just me, but I appreciate shots like this in promos...

Now that is what I find appealing, nice example. While I do not feel the Tina promos were too cartoon like, your render does display a great deal more reality which I like a lot. For the record you are not alone in reading the description and looking at all the promos before buying, I do that all the time and on occasions I also look at the readme file if I still have questions.  Due to this I am not a fan of words added to promos, although I have seen it used to good effect in promos for some props.  Props are very different though and often the wording describes prop options or where they fit in with other props in the same series.  Figures are different, if there are options or different textures I want to see the differences, the same with morphs.  The description might tell me there are a dozen morphs but I want to see what those morphs do.

 

 

I use Poser 13 on Windows 11 - For Scene set up I use a Geekcom A5 -  Ryzen 9 5900HX, with 64 gig ram and 3 TB  storage, mini PC with final rendering done on normal sized desktop using an AMD Ryzen Threadipper 1950X CPU, Corsair Hydro H100i CPU cooler, 3XS EVGA GTX 1080i SC with 11g Ram, 4 X 16gig Corsair DDR4 Ram and a Corsair RM 100 PSU .   The desktop is in a remote location with rendering done via Queue Manager which gives me a clearer desktop and quieter computer room.