It is interesting to study them, you can actually see their natural evolution just by how they act in idle and combat situations. For example, there is a major design flaw with the Drones that was fixed with the Walkers. Drones get effected by the recoil from their beams. I've seen it happen a few times in my play through, where they fire at me once and they start shaking around off balance, losing sight of me or throwing off their aim. Walkers are far more balanced and can take the recoil, they're faster, and they also can climb and cling on to any terrain, making the drones obsolete in most combat situations except in aerial and naval warfare (Which doesn't seem to be a thing in Hyrule with the Rito serving as a possible exception.)
Likewise, you can tell that the Walkers were likely the final model made as they are far more mass produced than all the other Guardian models, while the Turrets are very limited in number. Drones exist far more than Turrets, but far less than Walkers and Mini Guardians.