Yeah it does seem like the art team doesn't "get it".
I find myself giving them a break because art assets take a lot of time to create. But then again BG3 has a huge dev team and budget.
It was at its worst when more than one tiefling made the point that "we are no fighters, goblins would kill us", wearing elaborate high quality scale mail and armed with swords. It's not believable at all with everyone looking like elite warriors. The narrative should evoke sympathy for an oppressed group in distress but it just fails because of the visual disconnect.
It's early access still. Maybe the tieflings will get a more ragged look. They really, really should anyway.
There's a bit of a gameplay disconnect too. Astarion is a centuries old vampire. Wyll is the legendary Blade of Frontiers. Gale is a Wizard prodigy. All of them have extensive backgrounds that describe them as at least mid level characters. And mechanically they are all level 1 rookies who can get owned by a goblin.
I would have liked some prologue adventure that would have leveled the PC to 3rd level. Like the origin stories of Dragon Age Origins. Then maybe when you meet Gale and Astarion they could've been level 5. Which would already be plausible. I wouldn't mind if they were higher level than the PC either. Why does everyone need to be the exact same level anyway? No dynamics. Astarion being more powerful than your PC would only make him a better character because then being a vampire would actually mean something.
