I guess I end up more like this:
Than this:
As long as the bar's resting on your anterior deltoids, it's just a function of wrist flexibility (extensibility really), grip-width, and arm segment length. If your hands/wrists/arms truly look like the girl in the top photo, you may proceed.
Man, if I could get as good as that first pic, that would be awesome. As for the second one, impossible. The second one is more of an ideal that's hard for most people to get to I reckon.
One does not have to reach the second pic to be good at the olympic lifts. I've seen some ugly-ass rack positions even on people who've reached decent weights.
I usually end up catching it halfway between the two positions you see (I can get 4 fingers on the bar, but the bar is not palmed), and do a little adjust when I stand up straight; I think it's the minority of lifters, even elite ones, that don't require any adjusting at all.
For all you naysayers out there, there are definitely ways to try to move towards the ideal though: three months ago I was cleaning and front squatting with 3 fingers like in Figure 2. This works for some people, but for me, it caused a bit of an uncomfortable forward lean and sometimes on a heavy FS I would accidentally dump the bar. I ended up doing A LOT of static stretching of my wrists, forearms, and triceps, which is steadily correcting the problem. Likewise, there are others at my gym who started with a genie grip and are now on to 3 fingers, again via lots of soft tissue work.
Rip sez, "Do your static stretches!"