Quote Originally Posted by RyuRoots View Post
...while actively denying more visual combinations that would ACTUALLY enhance uniqueness.
See, I disagree with this. If they were all race unlocked, the less favorable models would die and become useless. Think about the hair from 2.0- each race got a style specifically tailored to them, and then once the elezen hair (the long hair with the single braid in the back) came out everyone wanted it, and regardless of it being from fan demand or not, SE made it available to everyone and that's the single most popular hairstyle I see now. Most ignore the hyur dreadlocks, and the roe's long mohawk. When you remove the race lock, the masses flock to a "favorite," it becomes the norm, and all other options (that you would have had to work with, with locks in place) become the norm and lose any sense of uniqueness. I'm not saying everything should be locked behind something but having a few unique options per race creates a unique identity for everyone, and if your race doesn't cater to the identity you want, be creative and make it work given the options you have.