Yes, those older designs were more extreme, but like you said, they kept the overall design and concept. To remove the cards from Complete Form wouldn't be doing that. It would make a whole different character/form.
On the topic of older releases, I mentioned I disliked the V3 and Riderman designs, but now that you brought it up, I dislike what they did with Black too. It's not that it looks bad or anything. I just think they went a bit overboard. If they at least kept the yellow and red stripes, I'd like it way better.