They've gone into detail about why this had to be done in the way it was done. If you're so mired in this paranoid delusion that the devs are secretly evil and doing everything they can to nickel and dime their players, then you need to get out more. Play a different game, you'll swiftly find out what playing a game run by devs that actually DON'T care about anything but bilking people for their money feels like.

Most MMO devs are RIDICULOUSLY opaque about their reasons for doing things, if not outright combative with their player base. Their reasoning remains forever arcane, and their practices often outright predatory.

Older characters in XIV were designed in a way that prevents them from adding additional customizations to existing face shapes. This is in no small part, connected to the reasons why we still don't have larger inventories. It's a memory limitation.