> sure you could tell AI to remove the snow and some face will be revealed, but who is to say it's accurate? that's why traditionally you have a reference input.

As I stated a few times, the model HAS SUPPORT FOR MULTIPLE IMAGES. The article here doesn't try your very specific reference-image-benchmark but that doesn't mean you can't do it yourself - and it also doesn't imply there's anything wrong with the article or BFL - they're merely presenting a common usecase - not defining how the model should be used.