I’ll start with the Porsche 997, the 996 looked alright imo, but it looks “like a 90s Porsche”, the 997 made it look sleeker and more modern. Still looks good today.
As for cars that looked worse after a facelift? Maybe the facelifted 6th gen Camaro? The 6th gen looked great pre-facelift, but they did something weird with the headlights and now it looks so-so…
Modern Camaros are kind of synonymous with having face lifts that, to me, make the car look worse overall.
5th gen Camaro 2010-13 pre-facelift: Beautiful car. The perfect blend of aggression and elegance. Spot on modernized representation of the 1st generation Camaro, particularly the 69. In person, these things are stunning to study and take in the details and lines.
2014-2015 Face-lifted Camaro (sans ZL1): Eh, they look alright, the new face didn’t work as well for me, and only the SS and Z/28 really made it work. The taillights were also a step back.
2016-2018 6th gen Camaro: Beautiful.
2019 face-lifted Camaro (SS): Mistake that only looked decent in black.
2020-2024 reface-lifted Camaro (SS): Better, especially in 1LE guise.
As far as a car that looked better after a facelift: The first Audi R8 refresh is the best looking version of that car to me. The first generation, although I love it, looks a bit too “soft”; the first refresh gave it that aggressive edge that it was missing.
To me the 5th Gen doesn’t look as much like a modern interpretation of the original so much as a bad caricature, I never liked it. I think the 6th Gen is fantastic though, even though they are somewhat similar.