I like em ugly. It's the Alien universe aesthetic where everyone in space is a slightly grubby, weird-looking blue-collar Joe. In a sea of games featuring kawaii anime girls, backflipping, gun-toting supermodels, and other such patronising teenage fanservice, I find it quite refreshing that Elite considers me mature enough to accept a short, fat, lantern-jawed oddball as my copilot.
Ugly faces are also more interesting, have more character. Look at famous photographers and artists. The ones who only paint and photograph subjects they find sexually attractive tend to mostly be consigned to glamour work and drawing anime girls at conventions. The high-end fine art guys seem to tend towards drawing/photographing/painting life as it is, and even slightly uglier than it is. Take a tour of a photography gallery -- I guarantee you'll find at least two pictures of old, wrinkley street vendors with teeth missing. Those old ugly guys are fine art paydirt. Elite goes down the same route, with faces you won't forget. It's pretty comical sometimes, but I like it.
If I want titillation, I won't look to Elite. There's an infinite supply of that out on the internet.
