For me the Lara era has ended anyway
IMO the game market suffers from the same issues as the movie industry. And that is a massive lack of imagination, lack of innovation or.... Or maybe its simply not having the will to invest in something which isn't sure to bring in some money aka being chicken.
My main gripe with all this is that companies simply pick up on icons from the past, violate them where storyline and everything else is concerned and then present it as "the latest newest hippest thing, product X totally revised!" and they're usually damned proud of it too.
Who cares that the move alone can kill fond memories of things from the past (Tombraider, Master o/t Universe, ThunderCats), who cares that where storyline is concerned you'll probably deliver an unfinished product thus leaving quite some new fans unsatisfied (Masters o/t Universe which series' got cancelled for example). As long as it brings in money its a huge success and it doesn't matter how far they have to go.
It's a common trend amongst fantasy characters it seems. Take ThunderCats; one of the things many die-hard fans kept on speculating about was Cheetara (a female character). Was she in love with Lion-O, was she having an affair with Tygra or was she simply totally devoted to being a mother-like figure for the ThunderKittens (Willykit & Willykat)? That went a bit too deep for me but many fans would describe that sense of mystery as adding up to the original series.
Well; TCats revised season 1. "One of your friends is going to betray you!" and oh my; Chee kisses Tygra full on the mouth, of course while she wasn't married to Lion-O or something (what betrayal?).
My point: this is exactly what those money dudes are hoping for. Getting the crowd all worked up ("You can't do that, Chee is an independent Cat!") so that they may feel compelled to buy into the next season to see "if the authors got it right".
This is no different. Bring in a Lara which many fans can't associate themselves with but may still have some "cuteness" over her, many people may buy the game and if at the end she isn't turned into the Lara as we know... Well, then better wait for the next game where she'll face even MORE misery (provided enough income was generated from this game of course).
For me; I'll stick to the older original Tombraider games thank you very much.