To me, the only likely reason that the dev team wouldn't put in male Viera isn't lore, or feet models, or attracting WoW players, it's discomfort. For whatever reason make bunny themes are uncomfortable for them to think about and if Hrothgar is a replacement that would be why. It's not a good reason, but considering it's been mentioned in the past by Yoshi and then the whole debacle with the bunny outfit, it seems clear to me that that's the likely reasoning.