Looks amazing, the smiling sculpt really captured an older Depp really well, the neutral one reminds of the DX06 and seems younger, more stylized but still good. Love the base too, to me the Black Pearl's helm is way more iconic to have than a shark and a flag. Love the use of geniune leather for the belts. The omission of a bottle of rum seems like a deliberate choice, likely for the same reason Disney had Hot Toys remove the chalices from Classic Loki.
The only things that kind of bother me are the hat still being inaccurate and oversized and that only the Artisan version has the cloth bandana. But considering how accessible the other versions are I can't really complain, just happy that I finally have the opportunity to add him to my collection, he's been a long time grail for me.
And once again I'll echo everyone else's words, we MUST have a new Davy Jones as well, with a more accurate sculpt, SERS and actual clothing. I see tons of people asking for him on Hot Toys's social media, hopefully they listen. This custom is a good example of what they could achieve now.
As far as licensing goes I don't think Depp is seeing a cent from Jack Sparrow merch, during the infamous trial he mentioned Disney owns the character of Jack Sparrow and they are still making merch of Jack and have him in rides despite the fact they have completely cut ties with him. Deep likely signed off his likeness to Disney for DMTNT in a similar fashion to Marvel actors who also sign off their likeness to the mouse when negotiating their movie contracts.
So considering that, this could very well be the last 1/6 Jack for a while and maybe ever if Hot Toys lets the rights expire. Deep's been clear about the fact his relationship with Disney is over, even before what happened he was giving interviews for DMTNT saying it's one of the only movies of his that he watched because he thought it could very well be the last PoTC he filmed and he wanted to give Jack a proper send-off or something along the lines.