What's up with this screenshot?
http://www.civfanatics.com/gallery/files/1/screen005_original.jpg
Must have been pre-release, but why bother changing the whole terrain art? Better question, why release a screenshot before you were completely sure of the graphics?

Well, chances are these were done during the final beta and something make them change their mind and switch to the current terrain. This terrain set look way better though. :)

No it doesn't. :vomit: Try Blue Marble.

I think it does look better. It's just opinion, so there's no right or wrong answer, but those graphics look a little too messy and "mushed" together, and hard to really distinguish objects apart from the terrain compared to the current graphics.

If you don't like it, like you suggested yourself, you have the Blue Marble mod, so I don't see the issue here, especially since CivIV has been long since released anyway.

All that aside, many games are the same way- a long time before any release dates are even made developers will often post up concept art and alpha/pre-alpha shots just so people will get an idea on how a game will look.