The case where likeness does not matter

Not every generated portrait is trying to look employable. Stylised images are the clean counterexample, and separating them is more useful than it sounds.

Why the standard inverts

For a work headshot, likeness is everything — a jaw slightly narrower than yours is a failure.

For a stylised portrait, likeness is barely relevant. The style is the point, and nobody is checking whether the cheekbones match.

Why the confusion is expensive

People apply the professional standard to a stylised output, conclude the technology is worse than it is, and stop. Or they apply the stylised standard to a work portrait and end up with something on a company page that does not look like them.

Same technique, two jobs

The mechanism is identical: a model learns what is constant about a face from a set of photographs. What changes is what you ask for afterwards, and what counts as success.