Meanwhile, I tend to play Ilphyl as having a fundamental fluidity to what they use wild shape for, even if they have favorite shapes. (Usually invertibrates, partially because those are so weird.)

Like, when I played Ilphyl as a TTRPG character, the party remembers 'giant octopus' as one of their favorite forms, but I recall spending a lot of time thinking about 'okay, would it be better to do X or Y here in a fight', and it might just be that it's not a typical combat form. (Or just the urge to make jokes about tentacles.)

(And now I'm wondering if Circle of the Moon Druids tend to fall into the two extremes of 'very specific animal association' and 'how many animals do you even know about!?', especially prior to the 2024 D&D update/BG3 where you got as many forms as you wanted.)

It feels to me like Larian wanted people to associate Halsin and bear, and then there's a little bit of video game constrictions. We meet him as a bear first, and when he turns humanoid, he's big and bulky in a way DnD doesn't usually depict elves. Famously gets naughty as a bear. And then mechanically the utility of shapeshifting is limited outside combat

where in an actual tabletop setting it's easier to get more creative with picking various forms and why they're being used

He's also the only druid who has Cave Bear specifically, and he can do it as a bonus action even if you change his subclass

True. Even if the rules update sticks with picking a set number of forms, because 'any thing you have seen less than CR whatever' was a lot