My wife and I have similar views on the halflings. For me I see a bobble head, for my wife she sees a human with dwarfism.
Human with dwarfism was the first thing I thought of, when I saw the first animated cut scene with one. I think it was that vendor in the Druid cove. It didn't read as Halfling to me, although I don't actually have a lot of experience with how they're represented in D&D. It just seems off.
It could just be lazy design with a vertical tweak of the adult Human model, or it might be Larian wanting to avoid having them look too much like children. Several of the OP's images showing "correct" Halflings look like kids to me.
Anyway, I support the idea of reducing the size of the head to avoid the Bobble-Head look, and maybe a slight narrowing of the torso, arms and legs without going all the way to slender child-like proportions.
