I think there is a lot of truth to your point and the royal correspondents I follow have been expressing frustration about the releases from Kensington Palace for some time. Most of their complaints seem to come due to a lack of coordination between the information from Buckingham Palace (the King and Queen) and Kensington Palace (William and Kate). They claim Buckingham Palace offered to help with planning the Prince and Princesses disastrous trip to Kingston Jamaica as they had more experience and Kensington declined the offer and felt they knew how to handle it. Of course, some of this may be the fairly common issue of a son not wanting to be coached by his dad, feeling he knows better, and learning the hard way.
From a positive viewpoint, the children look genuinely happy, even George, who tends to be more restrained. I find it believable that the photographer is their Dad and that things are okay. Also, I have seen a number of pictures of Pippa on holiday and I doubt she would be straying far from home if Kate was not doing well as they seem very close.
One of my daughters has modelled internationally and I remember looking at her face on the cover of a magazine and recognizing those were not her ears. She has very slightly pointed ears and they switched them out. We really can't believe everything we see.