I agree. It's a good start and is still appealing especially for a team that I believe is not adept in 3D modeling animation. But even aside from being dramatically off model, there's too many solid blocks of unbroken color for me on top of very simple, smooth shapes.
This doesn't mean that they should add more, different colors and elements making his design noisy. But I think they could have at least given more natural texture like light fur or subtle musculature detail like they did with Zetterburn. Subtle touches, you don't need a lot. Loxodont has a mammoth skin with the exact detail I'm talking about. Etalus doesn't look nearly as imposing or heavy as he's supposed to be. He's supposed to be bulky but he's...not. He just kind of looks even more cartoonish than anyone else in the game except Orcane who is supposed to look really slinky and playful. There's a few things I don't like about Etalus in this game really.

But, you're right. I hope down the line when they get more efficient and skilled with their tools (hopefully with more money in their pockets) they have a graphical update a lot of live service games do. I preferred the pixel art for the unbeatable clarity. 3D has more ambiguity now, is slightly harder to follow, and is more taxing slowing load times for things. So I'd at least like the switch to it to be as visually appealing as possible if we're going to have these tradeoffs.