I agreed with much of your reply to my post (hence the Xp award), but I wanted to highlight this part because I feel that you've fallen into a common trap in the comparison of scantily clad fantasy art. The big, muscly men are not eye candy for us ladies: they are wish-fulfillment for male gamers, many of whom are "nerds" and lack the powerful physique of the jocks that used to torment them in school (the scantily clad men could also possibly be eye candy for a subset of the male gamer audience). Everyone certainly has their own preferences, so nothing is universal, but by and large most women prefer the lean and toned physique (like a runner or swimmer) to the Mr. Universe physique. Even a less toned look is apparently preferred: somewhat recently on the radio I heard about the "dad bod," a little muscular but not terribly toned, being rather popular with ladies. As Dannyalcatraz pointed out (either in this thread or the other harassment thread), Sean Connery, who was seen as a sex symbol when he played James Bond, had a physique similar to the aforementioned "dad bod."
Maybe I've rattled on a bit longer than I should have, but the point remains that the Mr. Universe look hearkens back to the wish-fulfillment seen in superhero physiques and has far less female appeal than the Michael Phelps, Bruce Lee, or Bond-era Connery looks.
I did not say anything about big, muscle bulging guys. Let alone that they were eye candy for ladies, just that loincloths were as common as chain mail bikinis. My wife and several other women I have talked to have expressed a similar view to what you have posted. But I guess it is true that the vast majority of loin cloth wearing males are indeed of the bulging muscle variety.
And speaking of common misconceptions. The idea the nerds are jealous of jocks and want to be like them is BS. I was a big nerd in high school and had no desire to have bulging muscles or to be anything like the jocks. They were a bunch of jerks? Why would I want to be anything like them? And you know where being big and strong gets you today? Nowhere. Unless, maybe, you are able to get on a sports team. But good luck with that. And anyway I don't like sports either! So yeah, really don't care to be all big and muscly. Maybe my friends and I were outliers, but it is definitely not universal.
All that said there is certainly a place for super muscly guys in RPGs. I mean, the Hulk was awesome in the first Avengers movie! So characters that can pull off impressive feats of strength can definitely be fun. Therefore they should be portrayed in the art. The same as a stealthy rogue or powerful spell caster.
So apparently scantily clad guys with huge muscles are not a problem, because women aren't terribly interested in them. So are you suggesting that there should be more "dad bode" guys to provide eye candy for ladies? Or Bruce Lee, young Sean Connery or Benedict Cumberbatch types? (I had a nurse helping me at a hospital that went on and on about how sexy Cumberbatch was.)
And would it be acceptable to show scantily clad women if men weren't attracted to them? That kinda suggests that women need to be covered up because men can't help themselves and will be unable to see an attractive woman without thinking about having sex with her.