How Glamour Plates can be

[Genz]

I think having set the glamour plates feature all server-side was the problem.

Moving the plates client-side will be perfect. Gear sets already are client side, so the thing is possible. Instead of asking all and everything to the server as today, server will be asked to check if the glamour exists in your dresser only when you apply it to your gear. Whoa! More plates at zero server cost! No server interaction while I click on the plates. No need to check anything until I click "apply".
I even dare this way we can apply glamour plates even in the fields.

The problem comes from the dyes (and especially the mogstation dyes) and that they are consumable.

Gearset can be client-side because it's just a list of equipments. When a gearset is used, the server checks if the equipments actually exist and then display them with whatever appearance (glamour/dye) they currently have.
Glamour plates, on the other hand, also have to save the dyes, which are consumed at the plate creation. The devs had to do this because the dyes are consumable and some of them are "expensive" (mogstation), and obviously they couldn't ask players to consume a new dye each time we use a glamour plate.

Gearsets don't modify items ; Glamour plates can modify items with a (already-used) consumable (thus has to be saved server-side).
If dyes weren't consumable, the glamours system could have been less of a train-wreck.

If someone needed an example how bad decision (and in the present case, greed) can create limitations on the addition of new features, we have a nice one here.