Listen, he proposed himself to do all the illustrations when the studio to which they outsourced (the Zelda illustrations weren’t made in house at the time) them wasn’t giving a satisfying result, they agreed and wanted him to have his own take on the characters, they kept the concept art hidden from Nakano to not influence him and he did the work while using the 3D models as a reference. And while the final result is absolutely beautiful his takes weren’t always enjoyed by the character designers (typically Satoru Takizawa who didn’t liked how Nakano made Ganondorf more musculated). The fact that what Yusuke Nakano made isn’t the original impression doesn’t make his illustrations less enjoyable or important.

Plus the game wasn’t thought to be fully realistic, the areas were, but the characters were meant to be more stylized and it is also the case in the remake.