Wrong. The "bubble" canopy isn't a creative license. It's not like an act of faith, things aren't what you believe they should be. Shoji Kawamori -who as the actual designer of the VF-1s is more important than you and me- revised his SDF-M designs for the DYRL? film and guess what, he came up with the "bubble" canopy among other things.
I don't think it's safe to say these snapshots are just "current renditions":