I personally assumed that the point of having the (pricey) recipe and the vendor mass-produced gear at the same time was for RP purposes. It was very popular in FFXI to have certain gear be signed by a crafter friend just as a token of friendship/love/whathaveyou. This way you can either get your vendor gear for glamour purposes, or when actual ceremonies are introduced I assume many sentimental players will be insisting on having their wedding gown be handcrafted HQ by some loved one.
If that's not the case then whatever, but I thought it was SE taking the opportunity to allow people to be cute on top of fulfilling glamour demands via NPC.