It's been a month or so since I tried, but I'll give it another shot with a low resolution sprite. I remember it "molding" or deforming the sprite I was adjusting in a way that killed the look of the sprite. It was particularly noticeable when the sprite had a contrasting outline, which might be the culprit. Like a black outline against a tan filler. The outline being necessary in the game so the sprite stands out against any color backdrop, but an outline can be added after animation.
I'll give it another shot and report back. Vohjiin's works were very impressive and give me high hopes for Spine. If I can wrap my head around it, I'll easily drop the funds for a personal license.
Either way though, one suggestion I would make for you guys would be to try putting out an example of animated pixel art using Spine. It will pull in casual pixel artists like myself. I'll admit being turned off a little due to the advertised art styles being something I wasn't particularly interested in at the moment. Hell, even ask Vohjiin for permission to show his ๐