In Heroes of Might and Magic III, if my memory serves me right, dragons looked like trained dogs, either standing on their hind legs or performing the "sit" command...
Apologies if I'm wrong. But it's hard for me to compare those images with these. There's a significant time gap.

I checked the admin's link and don't see anything wrong; they're normal elementals – remember the fire elementals in Heroes of Might and Magic III and IV... I don't understand why they're considered less appealing than these.