When it comes to the new DoH gear, I assumed that the only advantage was allowing the more rich crafters to get geared up faster with the i170 versions, if they have the funds to overmeld them to be better than the i180 counterparts.

While other crafters could gear up with just the i180 gear (slowest path) or a mix of i170/i180 gear. (Myself, I'm going for the i180 main hand tool and chest, while getting the i170 versions of everything else.)
I'm completely fine with having various gearing paths like this, ranging from fastest to the slowest. (Well, aside from the red scrips pricing, but there's plenty of threads about that already.)

However, is there any reason why the i170 versions can be dyed, while the i180 versions can't?