To some extent, I understand the comments from DoomJedi and Soul Monster. I was quite surprised, like "Oh, you changed the sprite? Ok... ", but I'm getting used to it and I think I understand Nisaba's point about the story. That and it goes well in what seems to be a collage of abandoned mod assets (given that it's all in 16 colors, they blend together nicely, and any clash is rather minimal I'd say). For some reason, I never felt "protective" over Keen, neither the XkyKeen sprite nor the original sprite, not even in the darkest mod stories. Maybe it has to do with the cartoon look and the fact that Keen can help himself very well? I think proYorp makes a great point in that some people look younger than they actually are. I understand where DoomJedi is coming from, though.
I'm not the biggest fan of the chibi/cute style either (I know, my Keen sprite falls under that category too, but that was like 7 years ago), but I find it much more tolerable in a low-res sprite. I think it's because with a low-res sprite, there's less room for detail (so no extremely sparkly eyes) and it has more of an abstract look. The abstraction leads to a lot of room for imagination, so however you like to think about it, it could either be an extreme anime look or a more simple cartoon look (the artwork in XkyKeen4's KeenWiki page seems to suggest the latter, though).
In the end, though, I understand that every person has his/her own opinion, and I'm glad Nisaba understands that. I think it's really nice that she's going to offer two versions that will make both sides happy!
One time when I checked the PCKF Discord, I remember Zilem posting a sprite sheet of the finished version of the sprite. Maybe she finished it?