The faceliftings are a standard procedure to refresh the model, being much more cheaper than elaboration of the new one. Back in those days engineereing a new model was taking on average 7 years!
So in order to keep the sales, popularity and respond to the changing requirements of the users and law, the producers were simply modifiying the actual model, which was much cheaper. So, I would not blame the marketing teams. Rather buyers, who usually want to have something different rather than sticking to the old one. And yes, the modifications were frequently made by the same designer teams that created the original model.
Chrome was loosing the popularity after years of usage in favour of plastics. Together with the cost of plastic getting cheaper. Same for round headlights, no longer popular.
The shell being the most expensive part to modify (as modifying the machines was so) in most of the cases was kept the same even with several faceliftings. The external body panels (bonnets, doors, fenders, lids etc.) were already cheaper to modify, so frequently the producers were adding (or removing) some embossments to make it look different / new / modern.
The same procedure is applied nowadays, even though the engineering process has been computerized (=quicker + cheaper). The Ducato produced from 2006 is the perfect example.
Of course it's your car and you will do whatever you want with it
But my opinion is that a facelifting model should look like a facelifting model, not a strange hybrid of both.
