The funniest part is that the sympathy people have for Steppenwolf (and his puppy-eyes, lbr) in
this cut, invalidates the main reason for the redesign in Whedon's version: "he needed to be more expressive". The Whedon redesign that made Steppenwolf look like a Distressed Grandpa was all to insert a totally invented intro sequence that established that Parademons are attracted to fear plus a certain sound frequency, and all
that to "censor" Steppenwolf's demise at the end.
This cut shows he didn't need to look any more human than humanoid, Whedon was just being stupid.
Also, Darkseid absolutely doesn't give a damn. That guy was in comics smacking his own underlings around.
I don't have any panels on short notice, so here's a video that actually shows comic panels of Darkseid smacking people