Ideally, I'd say a balance needs to be found. Here in San Diego, I very rarely get even a second glance on my 2014 SR -- people just assume it's like every other bike (though I will say when I was visiting Santa Cruz, I got questions pretty much every time we stopped). So I'd say enough of a visual difference to make people look twice, and realize there's something unique about this bike, would be a good thing. It would help with the evangelizing process.
But I do think the design shouldn't stray TOO far from the familiar. Otherwise you run the risk of looking like something someone cobbled together in their garage, rather than a production-built, fully competent machine...what IS that thing??
What exactly that balance looks like, I don't really have a clear picture in my head. Someone pointed out that the fake "gas tank" on the Zeros really just serves as a visual point of reference for people...but what would you do instead? I'm not much of a designer, but it does seem like there should be SOMETHING between the front of the seat and the handlebars. Storage, extra battery capacity or fast charging is great functionality to put in that space...but the housings all seem to wind up looking like a gas tank. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Even the old-school Gold Wing, which had the gas tank under the seat, put a housing there to imitate a conventional gas tank.
One thing that still looks like a bike but never fails to turn heads is a full streamliner. And since EVs benefit greatly from aerodynamics, I think if I were designing an electric motorcycle from scratch, I'd design it from the ground up to incorporate a large, full fairing, including a good tail. That should start conversations wherever you go and serve a very useful purpose, as well.