Because black face paint on an actor has some ugly connotations in the US.
Well, I know that, but... seriously? You really think people would find the paint (which would look quite different from traditional "blackface") offensive yet be perfectly okay with doing the exact same thing using CGI? What if you cast an African-American actor in the role?
Were I making such a movie, I'd be much less worried about the connotations of makeup versus CGI, and much more worried about the connotations of "black matriarchal elves = evil, pale non-matriarchal elves = good." If you can swallow the whole concept of drow without comment, it seems pointless to complain about the use of chemical rather than digital means to produce them.
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