On Nimbus III, one of your contacts is a gent named Law. He has a Romulan-style haircut, and he calls himself a Romulan - but in "A Fistful of Gorn", you can clearly see his ears. And he has round ears, like a human. Is that why he's such a coward at the beginning?
Comments
The character designers are more or less creating humans and calling them Romulans.
Its kind of like making all Klingons look like B'Elanna Torres.
To me it seems like a effort was made to tone the "Romulan"