Ok, so it's primarily money. That's fine, I simply wanted to know where the differences came from.
I understand you don't have the resources of, say, Firaxis. Therefore, I don't expect Xenonauts 2 to look as good as X-COM 2 or even X-COM 1.
I guess if you honestly think the 2 pictures you linked are actually nice art then we must have different concepts of good looking. Maybe I'm spoiled by the many games out there which have large investors behind them. I'm sorry if I offended you, that was NOT my intention. I'm actually really glad someone made a more faithful X-COM game.
Luckily, your gameplay / mechanics is a LOT better than the dumbed-down Firaxis version. Also, your price setting is way better (especially considering the incredibly annoying DLC packs games nowadays have).
That's what made me buy X1, and that's almost certainly what will make me buy X2.