Quite a nice reading, very interesting and detailed, also from the emotional side. Your edit is very stylish and, heheh, neo-80s/90s (it bears some typical "oldschool" characteristics, like the strong "fixed" dithering bits---which I really admire---yet possesses the fresh spirit of the modern pixel art). I really like the part on fake-vector modes, as this is probably the first time I'm reading about it -- never tried to look at it in this way, and now it seems so obvious.
The hair may look a bit neglected (the rightmost part mainly) but that's something that slips out of your attention when you stay focused on the face rendering (which is brighter -- stands out) and the animation.
Wish you more of such wonderful article ideas!
ps/edit: Oh, and I see you always were more of a Sierra guy.
LucasArts for me, I really dig their graphics styles -- just recall Loom; it has probably the best EGA (originally, then they did that VGA remake) graphics I've ever seen in an early 90s game.