The designer says, the engineers changed the powertrain halfway through the design process adding a bunch of cooling requirements. That's why it looks half-finished because they had to slap the openings on after the styling was done. Looks like the cooling is for the front side motor...
I think it was originally supposed to be a twin turbo V6, and then they decided to do a hybrid drive. Which means intercoolers and plumbing up front for the Hybrid SHAWD.
But, of course, that's if we are talking about this NSX design. The
new NSX design was supposed to be a front/mid engine V10 with SHAWD (Super Handling All Wheel Drive). That designed for canned, but was then resurrected as the HSV-010 GT. Which had a front/mid engine 3.4 liter V8
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_HSV-010_GT .
And then the
new new NSX design (the current one) came out. But...we can go further than that. The old new design for the NSX was the Honda HSC, which debuted at the 2003 Toyko Motor Show. It was not confirmed as a NSX replacement, but the handwriting was on the wall. This I believe had a naturally aspirated V6.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_HSC .
Bottom line, Honda/Acura, like Toyota/Lexus take too long in the Concept to Market gestation for certain vehicles.
This new NSX was shooting for Ferrari 458 performance, and now the 458 has been replaced with the 488. Just like the original NSX had the FERRARI 308 benchmarked. And that was replaced by the 348 by the time the NSX came out.