I've never owned a Robert Place deck, and so I thought this might be my first, but now I'm not sure. If it were just a matter of adding esoteric symbolism onto the cards, I might just be able to ignore it because the art is otherwise attractive, simple, and clean. I've been learning/reading the Lenormand long enough now that as long as the symbols are quickly and easily recognized by my eye that's mostly all that matters. I don't read the pictures themselves, BUT...
...some of the changes are jarring to me. The Clouds don't look very cloudy, obscuring, or stormy to me what with that pretty lady playing the harp (pardon me for not having any clue who she's supposed to be.) It almost appears that they're meaning to completely change that card's meaning. The Dead Tree is annoying because at first glance one just sees "Tree," so your mind has to do extra conversion to see the deadness (Coffin/death/endings/big problems) of it as opposed to the alive Tree (health, long-term or slowly growing things). I'm not a fan of the Burning Serpent, but I can ignore the Judaic/Christian ideas there and just notice the Snake. But I really don't care for the large people figures stealing the limelight on the Stars and Lily.
If it were a theme deck, like the Halloween Lenormand or even the Wicked Sibyl, or a completely different oracle with a different structure, then these complaints would be moot. But it's so close to being a standard Lenormand, so these little things niggle at me. Boo.