I think it was mostly throwing crafters a bone. People (myself included) wanted those gear-sets to be dye-able, but there was also a push at the time to make crafting more relevant. So they tried to do both. I realize it's not exactly so simple, but it's not a bad alternative I don't think.

In addition to the dye-able crafting sets, there are also PVP sets that you can obtain with wolf marks that mimic the Foestrikers, Acolyte's, Battlemages, and Infantry as well that are dye-able.