I think the biggest problem I run into when commissioning furry art is that many artists have not drawn very many girls, and as a result I have a hard time judging whether I like their art style or not.
When someone has a bunch of cute girls in their portfolio it easily turns into "this is very pretty and I want to see Nova/Maffi/whoever drawn like this!"
@XerTheSquirrel after getting my current reference sheet I don't really worry about squirrel drawing ability anymore. I still typically want to see some cute girls before I agree to something though.
@NovaSquirrel Same for me, also includes squirrels since we are not as common!