Most of the games tend to be downgrades but ND who never do things like others decided at the opposite to upgrade their game since E3 : 

It's totally crazy, im shocked , it looks exactly as good as the 2014 in engine trailer.

Well let's wait until the framerate proves to be flat 30fps. If it isn't I would still call it a downgrade since it only marginally looks better.

it pretty clear they reduced foliage.. clearly one tree less.. maybe even 2..

Yeah, that's pretty great indeed.
If I may ask, where's the 2016 screenshot from ?

If marginally means the opposite of what you mean, yes

It's from one of the early copies of the game , someone made à capture.

Yeah, they took 2 trees away, but I highly doubt the performance gain from this would be enough for such a lighting upgrade, better models, etc

LOOL yeah and 1 less flower in the ground haha

They just improved illumination a little

And one less apple !!! I cancel m'y pre Order !