I've been wondering for a while why the realistic tag isn't used for that.

According to it's wiki page:
"This tag is used when a character is designed in a style more artistic than in its original toon."

Yet the tag is being added to posts like this:
post #784339 post #864886 post #856620

and to be honest, I feel the latter may be a better use for the tag.

I noticed that the tag was originally used for this type of image but it was changed to the current usage about 5 years ago.

What was the reason for the change?