This is how they usually do it:
View attachment 4643660
I dont remember from what company that was. Some might breed only once to original and select a bit more, some might use larger pool of plants to select from, some might even do more than one backvcross to original. Some of those old cookies from fastbuds and some others have been bred more to originals since they were first released. And also now that i think of it, fastbuds has had a cookie auto for quite a while, so their new cookie mixes might be more cookie like than maybe some others. Only speculation, and theres other important factors also.
But then you have mephisto for example that does not try to copy photos that much, but do their own thing breeding with autos and sometimes inducing new photos, but for purposes of breeding better new auto strains, not in trying to make auto version of a photo. I think this is one reason why they breed so high quality autos, they are not bred with #1 aim to be close to some specific photo, but to be best possible autoflowers. Im not saying that other breeders could not make some strains as good as mephisto, but mephisto is definitely up there with consistent high quality auto genetics.
Fastbuds is also ofc a dedicated auto breeding company, but they focus in trying to make auto version of photos like most others who breed autos