Yes, not all customers buy into the original [external] design.

Personally I think it's a low-rent imitation of Mazda, so a refresh would have been nice.

For all the "but the insides have been upgraded/revamped!!" messaging, it's just confirming that they're too cheap to improve, or just change, the outside.

Porsche has changed the 911 body, quite radically in fact, if you side-by-side anything 1980s or before with 2012 or later.

But what Porsche does very well is introduce new platforms every few years. It's still a 911 but a new generation, that generates excitement and new sales. Then a few years into each cycle, it releases various sub-specialties and performance variants -- the RSes, GTs, Turbos, etc. Yes this often means at the very end of a platform's life sales drop (in anticipation of the next version) but overall its clear that Porsche has been extremely successful with this release model, which I think the other German carmakers emulate, like BMWs 3-series.

It's a non-zero factor. Designs for cars, furniture, shoes, hairstyles, all evolve.