What is in the art style of your reference sheet and why

[jin xun]

There was somebody complaining to me that there are too few dragon suits in a realistic style, and I answered that a lot of dragons just don't have their ref in a realistic art style(apart from technical limits).

So such a question struck me:
The dragon figure expressed in images must be distorted more or less from your true selves in mind due to its artistic styles, so will you recognize it as yourself or your species if it's made into a living entity according exactly to the artistic style of your reference?

Moreover, if you won't recognize so, what you might think of is causing the distortion through the choice of art style?

Is it a technical issue: your human brain just can't imagine some dragon details, the illustrator can't fully understand the accurate image of your true self, the limitations of visual media itself, etc

Or a intentional issue: through such distortion of some features, you are trying to get rid of some haunting ideas related to those features, stopping them from staining your thought of a perfect self, etc?