-also, about jake hair, he stopped using hair gel (in fact go check the latest pics with dimension 2 jake and you'll notice his hair slowly going down x3)
Lore-wise: I thought being raised by Lao Shi (altho he's not the American Dragon in this story) he'd grow up with a lot of pressure behind his back, which ended up making Jake rather insecure (U3 Jake was mostly raised by Fu and his parents, thus why he's way more confident in comparison)... idea is that Spyro slowly helped him overcome most of his insecurity, so now U2 Jake thinks using hair gel to "look cool" is just dumb... U1 Jake still uses hair gel because he has to look good for his job at Möse Coffee (and because the idea is that he has to look similar to the show xd) U3 uses it because it makes him look "Super fucking cool bro xd".
Reality: i just thought he'd look more cute uwu
2 reasons.. Lore-wise: I thought being raised by Lao Shi (altho he's not the American Dragon in th