Something I noticed during my most recent viewing of 2.0: the little round thing in the center of the chest of Shinji’s plug suit has changed colours between versions. I checked, and this differentiation seems to be pretty consistent.
There aren’t really any other noticeable differences about the suit, so why change that one specific thing? Hmmmm.
I’m not saying I think it’s a core allusion, but I think it’s a core allusion.