Most of the time it literally doesn't matter if actors in live action adaptations look like the source material

I've been seeing a lot of content about yhe series version of The Last of Us' main character not looking like her video game counterpart (a lot of it is really negative about the looks of the young woman playing her).

Honestly, what plot purpose does Ellie's appearance actually serve? Are there moments where the plot progresses simply because the character looks like that? Is there a character's physical feature that propels the story forward at all? If not, then the actual appearance of the actor doesn't matter.

IF the appearance of a character is important to the plot i.e. witchers have yellow eyes and white hair, that's how people identify them and it causes problems, of course getting those details correct are important for the actual story. However, superficial cosmetic differences simply aren't important.