SE is responsible for leading the hype-train and setting expectations

[LyraKuroneko]

Most likely, they've been looking at different suggestions over the years, and the two biggest fanservice race suggestions were Viera and Ronso.
They wanted to do both, but only had plans for one more race.
They can't just keep adding races, the biggest resource drain with new races is remodelling all of the existing equipment, and all of the future equipment requiring an additional variant, it's an exponentially increasing workload.

Could there have been less backlash if they just went with Viera and never even mentioned anything remotely like Ronso? Probably.
That doesn't mean this decision was made out of spite against male Viera fans.

The remodelling is an excuse. The stuff currently isn't modelled after every race to begin with. And from the size of one added, they may not even need to adjust anything besides helmets.

[Valenth]

The remodelling is an excuse. The stuff currently isn't modelled after every race to begin with. And from the size of one added, they may not even need to adjust anything besides helmets.

True, currently we have three base models on which they make armor for - Lalafell, Hyur and Roegadyn and they essentially stretch out armor along points on the body for it. Only Lalafell and (male?) Roegadyn use their own body shapes, the rest of the races use the Hyur base to stretch body armor over (yes, even Elezen and Au Ra). I will not be surprised if the Viera will use the female Hyur base and the Hrothgar will use the male Roegadyn one. However, they of course have to check if the stretching goes right when designing armor and adjust where neccessary.