Agree.
Trick: Equip flashlight and run around in 3rd person until the zone reset. Models will disappear briefly (including you) and when you reappear, you will be holding the flashlight nc1-style with your arm up. (instead of arm down at side). holding the flashlight with the arm down at your side is ugly.
I believe it was a problem with the nc2 model itself's skeleton stances. if you look closely, the arms do shift a tiny bit when equipping a 1-h item (psi spell, pistol, flashlight, melee), but the modeler was seemingly unaware of what that stance was supposed to represent and made another "arms down" pose. Fixing that specific pose would do it. Of course, that is easier said than done. If it truly is skeleton-based then it is possible that only the skeletal animation set could be altered and re-imported without touching the models. (although I believe the models themselves should be drastically improved also but that's another thing)