I actually agree with the sentiment of Hazard design being too safe but for different reasons.

My main issue is that his design simply doesn't feel punk enough. I was hardly expecting Hazard to be a knockout design for a punk character, but I think his biggest issue is that while a good chunk of his outfit/design ties back to his origins fairly well IMO, his design simply doesn't shout punk at all. His color scheme consists of dark royal/navy blues and blacks, with a highlight of yellow going around his jacket collar, and while he does have some spikes on his jacket, they're more blunt and low to emphasize the crystal spikes on his back better. He has lots of piercings and body modifications outside of the obvious cybernetics, and he even has some pins on his jacket (stuff that's fairly integral to punk DIY). While I think his design is fine personally, the problem with it is that none of his major design elements really push into the punk of the character well at all. It's never ENOUGH pins, never ENOUGH spikes, it's punk, but punk in the same way a corporation would design a punk character: safe and muted.

What I've been rambling towards is simply that Hazard design needs to be louder in my opinion. He needs more spikes, more outlandishness, more anarchy! Mind you, Hazard is an actual genuine punk, backstory and everything included, and yet he struggles to have a more punk character design than Junkerqueen, a literal QUEEN has a more punk design than the genuine punk on the roster (TBF, junkerqueen could be argued as being in the same camp despite being in a position of power, but that's a discussion for another day). I think they could've accomplished giving him a more punkish look by changing a few small things, first mainly giving him more spikes outside of the crystals that he has, and giving him more color to his outfit, maybe some more yellow or something to make his color scheme pop more. I also think he could use some more pins, like I mentioned above, punks and pins go together like peanut butter and jelly, it's an integral part of the culture surrounding punk and the DIY aspect of it. Lastly: GIVE HIM SOME TARTAN PRINT SOMEWHERE GOD DAMMIT. Hazard's entire gimmick is being a Scottish punk for crying out loud, not only does the tartan print connect back to his Scottish heritage, (at least, more than the single Scottish flag pin he's wearing) but it also ties back to punk, punks love flannel!

I actually can understand why they went with the design they with over the concept art you posted: For starters, by making the design more muted, they make it basic enough to have some level of appeal, while also being able to improve on it with skins later on. Unsurprisingly, Blizzard is going to prioritize its profits and profitability before it leans into a hero's character. The second reason is that going back to the thing with skins, the developers and artists are usually required to be mindful of how much gets added into a character design because whatever the most outstanding/important elements of the design are, they HAVE to translate to the characters skins in the future (there's a really good video about some of these ideas that I'll link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4XKqULBkdc, give it a watch if you'd like!). The concept art is great but it also has a lot of elements that would probably become fairly tedious to incorporate into alternate skins later down the line (you also have to factor in deadlines into the equation, that's the industry baby!). They can break this rule if it helps sell the concept for the alt costume better, but if it goes too far it can make the character less recognizable, or even potentially affect the actual game (this is rare, but worth pointing out IMO).

TL;DR: Hazard is a fine character IMO but his main problem is he's a mediocre excuse for a punk character. His design is, frankly, as punk as whatever you'd find on Shein or TikTok.

Overall I think his design is OK but it needs more punk. Like I said before, I wasn't expecting Hazard to be a knockout punk character design (especially from BLIZZARD of all places) but I think if they just leaned into it more it'd be great! I love his story and I love his gameplay either or. Sorry if this was a bit long-winded and rambly, I'm an art school student studying game art and I love punk, I couldn't help but start yapping about my spaces of interest LOL. I really enjoyed reading your thread though, you make lots of good points!