They might be, but there's certainly nothing stopping one from choosing to use a cinematic camera to take snapshots that are more appealing than "here's the track around my vehicle which is always going to be down there in lower-center." They are promotional shots, after all.
People have seen enough live footage at this point to be able to compare, but I'm not that interested, as I already know how it looks in motion. That being the selling point.
As to the mud spraying, I figure that for promotional shots where they're trying to show you a stream of vehicles from to "just above the track" level, clean car shots, and such, they're likely turning it down or off to not clutter up the screenshot. You can see it in some of the pics, but the effect is minimal. But we've already seen it in live-running footage, so...
On that note, I'm more interested in knowing if mud splashback will affect your camera, spot up or smear your vision, etc. The prospect of driving in first-person on a constantly fluctuating track which throws mud in your face that you can wipe away but leaves smearing on your visor and constantly affects your vision would be quite appealing, I think. ^_^
