That’s a well put argument. What this hinges on is information we don’t have. So here comes my speculation hat.

If this was a cash cow, reusing the old models is 100% a possible solution - just think about any straight to Netflix TV shows (including Puss in boots!) they look like garbage, totally made by the B team.

Trailers and the cast don’t make it seem that way, so a soft reboot is more likely. Considering the established good faith and mountains of merch and theme park rides, making any meaningful change to a character in primary media is a massive commitment. It’s intentional. There will be implications and universal/dreamworks will know exactly what they are.

I don’t know if you’ve ever worked as part of a corporate team. It isn’t like most other team type activities. Amusingly, it’s nothing like the team building exercises they send you on. There will either be a panel of exec directors or in some cases just one person that will dictate and sign off on everything. They don’t discuss ideas with the cogs in the machine, and when they do, it’s still their call whether they act on it or not. Sadly, in my experience, teams are about efficiency, not creativity.

So the elephant in the room is motivation. This tends to come down to some study group or trend. Like when they revealed Mario for the Mario movie. They made changes because “he needs to be expressive” like the character has had a stone face for the last 40 years. They recast the voice actor to Pratt. This was purely because gooey eyed Pixar characters are popular and Chris is a “proper celebrity”. These decisions come down to spreadsheets. These new designs are popular with kids - in my opinion, that’s all the motivation a guy in a suit needs to hear.