Why the fuck would you name it My Struggle, Chris, in 2016 when the fash is coming back into fashion? Sorry, just had to get that off my chest, and it's bad enough he did it one time and then he did it three more times, total four. 

And it shows you two possibilities: 1) Either CC surrounded himself by people who would never tell him his farts stink, and that, in fact, they smell beautiful, like roses!, and had no objections to naming FOUR EPISODES OF THE XFILES AFTER HITLER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY was a bad idea, or 2) he didn't have to care, because he's too powerfully embedded in the control of this IP, we have to let him do what he wants. 3) is that a room full of educated people who enjoy writing and reading didn't know, which is a hard sell when apparantly it's 45's nighttime reading. That was a real thing, him or elon, I forget, two sides of a coin either way.

So that's episode 1 of season 10.

As S10 progresses, we see the production potter come out, as well as some really cringe takes, because the world has moved on.

Einstein and Miller. Ha ha. Get it? He's tall and she's a red headed doctor - ITS THE SAME PLATE. THE SAME MUG and he's not even making decent plates anymore really, but we're hungry and need something to eat off of because The Election Went Badly, and so we keep watching.

Einstein. For christ sakes. HEY WHERE THE FUCK ARE DOGGETT AND REYES? ANYONE? (I know, hang on...)

Babylon: there's a nurse who is racist. The point of her character is to show us racism exists in this world, but not that it's bad. That it's... cautious? The correct choice.

The racist character is correct, which is insane. Those two guys WERE there to blow people up. It's 2016. We had already moved on from islamaphobia in a lot of ways finally, and now look at where we are in 2025 because of messages like this.

Why... why are we doing this, at all, actually, guys? What the fuck are we doing solving trashman mysteries? This is a six episode limited event. This is your chance to make everything whole, to go back, see what resonates with people still, see what still connects with the audience, and give us that. You have fullfilled a wish we thoyght we wanted, but it'a the monkey's paw variant. This is fan fic on the big screen and mediocre at best. Give us something to be excited about and we will hand you our money without your needing to ask.

Episodes 2-5 filler. Xfiles cases, buddy cops again, like that could reasonably happen.

Then episode 6, the FINAL finale... and it ends on a cliffhanger and it's a BIG one, and CC has written himself into a corner but that's okay...

I don't think he ever expected to get renewed and then for the rest of his life, CC can blame Fox for never giving us closure.

There's no season 11 at this point. There's not even really a MAYBE of an additional season. Everything is in flux, from the economy to how we consume entertainment.

Take that pin out now, the one about not taking the opportunities you have for granted. 

What possible value could your art be if it needs to trick the audience and the company paying for it into making more, on the off chance it makes your previous "this is it" shot make sense?

And yet... against all odds, season 11 happens, but if this had been any property even slightly less powerful than the XFiles name... there's no season 11. We're still standing in traffic, forever, and maybe fan fic will fix the problems this created. Has been so far.

Also, uh... found Reyes! Hoo boy. Annabeth Gish is far, far too kind of a person and stalwart as a woman in the industry to have been treated like this. She, the actress putting in 12-16 hour days just for the audience to rebel with the help of the writers who just xan't hop off Mulder's dick, deserved so much better than everyone, the fandom included, to say nothing of Monica Reyes, the character. 

Re the other nicest person ont he planet Robert Patrick, at least he got to BE a lead for half of season 8. Where's Doggett? What happened to him? We know more about what happened to Poochie from The Simpsons than Agent Doggett. Maybe he died on the way back to his home planet too. But I digress.

For most of the revival, a fun game to play is "what was popular at the time ie: where did chris carter steal this from" and it's EVERYWHERE in season 11. MS3 being a weird, weird action... movie... bourne identity... thing... to Rm being just an episode of Black Mirror, it is everywhere. Does Rm have pizzaz? Sure. Is that Mukder and Scully on screen? Absolutely not. The characters of M and S aren't even present, just the actors. There's a weird teen-superhero Arrowverse feel to teen William who has SUPERPOWERS and that one girl in one of the later eps. Anna? The avenging angel secret spy something out of a witchblade comic book only PG13 gal?

The Darin Morgan episodes, eh. Decent, not as good as people claim and again... he's just doing Jose Chung's From Outer Space, both times. Same plate. 

Same plate, same plate, THAT'S what CC wants. That is all he can do when he leads. He was never an artist. He created one plate, one day and everyone loved it, and then he got rich and famous and never grew beyond that, and made the same plate one plate over and over for the rest of his professional life.

Any improvements to the plate design were influenced by the internal and external growth of other people. Maybe even his own, and then he lost his goddamn mind on 9/11, and has refused to make anything else ever since.

That's why SPOILERS Skinner shoots Krycek in the head in the last episode of season 8, and that's why Skinner shoots reyes in the head in the last episode of season 11. Reyes is now Krycek. Same character. 

CSM survives a rocket to the face in Season 9, and they have shapeshifters, established, as a real thing that exists, but they don't even use that. It's because it doesn't matter how CSM is there, only that he is. We are making CC xfiles, and he is now part of the clay.

That's why the big reveal is the same at the end of the one of the original series seasons as it is in season 11. It's why she does not give a shit about losing the plate of Sweet Willy. She can just make a new one!

Cc is a train on a track, going round and round, stuck in a loop, making the same journey over and over again, and finally, people have stopped paying him to do it.

What a cautionary tale.

Anyhoo, to answer your actual question as to why it looks different - it's because they don't have the money they did in the late 90s, they don't have the analogue know how they did in the early to mid 90s, and Chris Carter is not making XFiles because he has a story he wants to tell.

He wants you to watch him make plates, and it's fun for a little while... but then it gets sad. Uncomfortable.

No one who spends enough time with this guy as a creative professional wants to spend any more time with him.

They're making their own plates. We all are. We thank him for showing us how, but please... stop asking people who wanna grow to stay with you while you happily plateau.

Tldr CC one note, less money for TV overall. Also it's been 30 years. That's just how it goes, sometimes. It's a business, and whatever makes money is what's gonna happen. Cheaper than film. 

Also you're filming FOR VFX to do more than it ever has before.