> How did she expressly approve the original, when she didn't know for decades that it was so widely used?

Maybe I read the wrong interview with her, but when she found out about it she expressed happiness about it.

Since this replacement image was created after her interview, how is it ethically better in any way?

Lena Söderberg expressed her wish for her image to be "retired from tech" in 2019 (see the end of this clip, https://vimeo.com/372265771), when the above alternative image was published.