Two words:
Armada Scavenger.
Moderate basic articulation is needed or fans throw fits about that too. As we see with the evergreen line and even some cyberverse offerings that are more directly aimed at kids.
Generations has to maintain moderately decent articulation. At least a roughly 11-16 point aspect. That's roughly the threshold at where fans don't complain. Same is relatively true for Studio Series. The point of generation is to move away from inaction figures of the G1 era by bringing those designs into articulation standards of today as well as offering new systems of play and interaction.

But no one is really expecting double hinged knees and elbows. But they do need to have roughly the same range of motion as a GI Joe moderately. (Roughly about Retaliation Zartan's level of range of motion. But that's at the complete minimal.)

 

There is a reason for this. When Hasbro asks Emiliano for art, normally this is well in advance of whatever toy they end up planning for the line. For example, by the time Emiliano found out his Alpha Trion was going to be turned into a headmaster, his design had already been done for a long time. Same thing with Skylynx(becoming a combiner) and others.

Some of these artists are just commissioned for general designs, not knowing what gimmicks are going to be implemented. So when you see concept art for a mainline, don't expect the toy to match the initial concept art. The only time a Transformer tends to match the concept art is for the MP line.

There's been countless times where the concept art looked better than the final toy. TR Galvatron, Alpha Trion, CW Sky Lynx, POTP Rodimus, to name a few. Once Hasbro and Takara decide on gimmick implementation, the design more than likely will be substantially different by final production.

Would've loved to see a Galvatron and a Rodimus based more directly on Emiliano's art but the marketing team and suits will favor gimmick implementation over what looks good. For gimmicks why don't they just make an all new character? Ah well.

 

In the context of modern generations and santalucia in particular this point seems mostly irrelevant. Outside of minicon class and below, when was the last time a generations fig had less than the bog standard 8-9 points of articulation?

 

I think it's really counterproductive to show how awesome these figures could have looked.

 

Deluxe Ratchet and Ironhide. But relatively speaking, designs have improved since universe 2.0 figures.

But as I said, you hear the complaints most heavily in the evergreen lines and cyberverse stuff.