You seem to be right that I was mislead by the trope name; I read the lede but apparently not close enough the first time. I thought it was when a heroic character eschews garb that would obscure their face even if it would have a protective function because hiding a face 'just is not heroic'. But it seems it is not a character trope but a work trope, where the work avoids obscuring faces (with or without justification) because faces are so expressive. Anyway, I had in mind quotes like this:
https://abcn.ws/2GbS1PHI
> I don't wear masks like him. Every time you see him, he's got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from it, and he shows up with the biggest mask I've seen.
> I just don't want to be doing -- somehow sitting in the Oval Office, behind that beautiful, Resolute Desk, the great Resolute Desk, I think wearing a face mask -- as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don't know, it somehow, I don't see it for myself.
> Trump said he wore a mask behind closed doors on a visit to a Ford plant in Detroit but he "didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it".
> Well, I'm tested, and I'm sometimes surprised when I see somebody sitting and -- like, with Joe. Joe feels very safe in a mask. I don't know, maybe he doesn't want to expose his face," Trump said on Sept. 16. "There's no reason for him to have masks on."
> In September, a frustrated Trump asked a White House reporter to remove as mask while asking a question: "If you don't take it off, you're very muffled."