The Asari were designed from ME1 to be a species with a romance option, which is why they look identical to humans except for blue coloration and head tentacles. The Asari are, as a result, the worst species in ME from a design standpoint. Utterly lazy and poorly thought out. The only reason Tali didn't look like a purple woman from the first game was because she was not planned to be a romance option, like Garrus. Although we already directly saw Garrus' face in ME1, so they couldn't change that while Tali's face (and all quarian faces) were a mystery and they could make it whatever they wanted. I just want to emphasize the idea that "romance = ludicrously human design" was there right from the start, rather than being something that came in later entries (and I can see in this thread people are already incorporating this into the "ME1 = god, all later entries suck" narrative).