Those earrings are the only earrings in the game that are special in that way. Although I will admit that the gathering and crafting jewelry does seem to be different but only for HW and SB leveling. In HW and SB endgame they share models.
Everything below the platinum earrings in the market section looks exactly the same for every level.
Red/metallic earrings = STR
Yellow = VIT
White/Blue = INT
Green = MND
Purple/metallic earrings = DEX
The devs could easily lock them and make Lv1 versions of all the colors as crafting recipes and call it a day. Done and simple. Red earrings, blue earrings, green earrings, etc. I understand that earrings and jewelry are used for glamour, I have jewelry glamoured on my AST, WHM, SMN and soon-to-be BLM. They could either lock them, or do the warning prompt solution I posted which would be 100x more glamour-friendly while also teaching the players right from wrong.
It's not an extreme minority. It's the new players leveling from 1-50 and not all will understand exactly what every stat means. I'm speaking from experience as someone who had many friends brand-new to the game who DID run around with the wrong battle jewelry, crafting/gathering gear, and crafting materia in their gear.Most players have the presence of mind to notice that their weapon always has a certain main stat on it, so it means that stat is for their class. They see their starter class quests award gear with that same stat. They see they can only roll need on armour with certain stats on them while they are playing a certain class. They eventually learn if they fall in to DoM or DoW based on the gear their class can equip. There is also the recommended gear button that recommends specific types of gear with specific stats.
This so-called issue only applies to an extreme minority. Fixing this would result in little to no noticeable improvement in the quality of the playerbase.
EDIT: All Aetherial gear and crafted gear except for those meant for Disciple Of War in ARR can be needed on by anyone so no players don't see it. In fact, the armor says "Disciples of War or Magic" or "All Classes".
This is an MMO and for alot of people who are just starting they will not always understand what everything does. It is the game's job to teach players most of everything there is early in the game the best way possible so that they can go forward with new knowledge. That's what tutorials and help prompts are made for. Not to let them "figure it out" sooner or later by getting frustrated on a boss they can't beat due to having crafter stats, looking on the internet, or getting yelled at by somebody in the dungeon.
Things like that make new players want to quit early because they're still not fully hooked. And that's the last thing FFXIV needs right now because the new player retention rate is pretty horrible. Anything that can help lessen that blow should be considered. And I am not saying things like story pruning isn't as important. I actually have a whole section in my OP about the early experience.