Your related posts images look good. I don’t see any problems.
The issue I am having is that they are cut off ratio/proportion-wise compared to the actual featured image
Apparently the related posts images are an added image size that by definition is cropped to fit a certain aspect so all posts in a row will display uniformly regardless of the source image’s actual aspect. Altering this behavior could have adverse effects on the overall appearance unless you are very disciplined and consistent with what images you upload. It should be feasible to alter the aspect ratio used for all related posts, but I don’t advise altering the cropping behavior.
It looks like the related posts feature is part of JetPack. I recommend asking in their dedicated support forum how you might be able to get what you want.
Thank you! I was able to resolve it looking at previous Jetpack forum posts.
