It's not an upgrade or downgrade, it's just a different versions.
Use additional tags like gobo light, dappled light, dappled shadows or/and cucoloris lighting to enhance the effect.
As illustrious and pony have kind of backward compatibility, you can try these models with pony-models
v1 — most artistic but most inaccurate // specializes in girls
v2 — slightly improves realism
v3 — improves realism a bit more
v4 — more men in dataset
v5 — mix of v1 and v4 with slightly bigger dataset
If you're tired of yet another style of yet another anime.
Archived models and exclusive models are available on my boosty
you can always support me on my boosty. Some exclusive models included