TLDR (from what I gathered, since I don't come here much no more):
Came out with amazing wonderful Kate Upton esque look/ wonderful chest, face & body combo, people thought she would take off possibly replace or compete against Kate, get a lot of gigs. Big breasts, blonde blue eyes hit a lot of the check marks similar to when Kate exploded on the scene and people went crazy for her (SI helped)
Got some gigs, mainstream wave started happening
Gigs did not happen as much as people thought based off a few that she got, people still really loved her, like your favourite cult/semi famous band. Mainstream wave fell
Transformation started, people again expected more gigs after the transformation (this is what I'm calling it.) I've seen some of the curvier models (Jessica Gomes for example) hard to get some work at their curviest transform a bit and sometimes more work
Gigs still not happening like people thought they would (see bullet point 3), fan base split/some upset/some hating/some loving it/some shocked at new look. This is when the discussion on "weight/size" on BZ started picking up
Now there's a flux of people that like her pre-transformation (see Limer), people that like her post transformation & other's that still see her as beautiful either way. There's no wrong answer here Just a lot of people remembering/knowing what they like of Alex and wanting that
The only common denominator is everyone thought regardless of how she looked, when people became a fan they thought she would get more work, and it's not happening to the extent that the potential was thought there of. So take BZ as example, people really at the end of it all just want her to work more regardless there was/is a ton of potential for her. I like her burst on the scene look more of Alex and more than Kate when she busted on the scene due to the gentler rounder face and the more approachable kinda girl next door look vs (again) Kate, I remember The Chive having a wonderful gallery on her and her bustiness . To me at least that's all it is, if she was working a bit more getting gigs and shoots and everything people thought, there'd still be the Old looks vs New look debate on here but not every page or two it would be more accepting overall because she's getting more work/more mainstream attention.
Personally: I'm just shocked at the difference of where she was when we first saw her to now, it's night and day if it wasn't for this thread I wouldn't know it was the same person to me it's really that different.
People gonna have different thoughts on the whole matter but hopefully it's at least a C- breakdown