I went off on a weird tangent about game preservation after my initial question, but that's what I meant with my "I wonder if the artist's vision has changed as well."

If the artist's views have changed, and they are either supportive or the driver of a change like this, is it neutering their vision? It's certainly straying from the original vision, but I wouldn't call it neutering.

When I think of neutering, or really, betraying an artist's original vision, I think of something more akin to Terminator 2 (James Cameron was pushed to give the movie an open-ended ending), or, more recently, 2003's Dumb & Dumberer.