In my opinion, the foot demons look quite good.
Regarding the controversial points - these aren't flaws, so there's nothing to fix. It's simply a difference in my perception compared to yours. I liked the uniformity of the color scheme in Manulli's work. On the other hand, the way you adapt the design to the portrait also seems interesting in its own way. For me, the ideal would be somewhere in the middle. Probably around 70% uniformity in the model and 30% differences. Perhaps with a visual separation between a melee fighter and a mage.