Midlander's my perspective

[Berethos]

That's like saying kitty isn't a cat she's a dog but has the model of a cat because they didn't have models for dogs at the time. hahahaha ridiculous don't you see?

Except that's exactly the case with her character. In 1.0 they only had character models for male Highlanders.

As per the Encyclopaedia Eorzea, "Minfilia is a Highlander woman of twenty-seven years."

Instead of changing her to the female Highlander model introduced in 2.0 and have her suddenly look different, they left the model essentially the same (using the Midlander as a base) and gave her a new and unique outfit.