I'm not all for it but that's the reason right there why it will most likely never change. There is more money involved rather than having a restore. You could say "make the fee equal" but you would have to make it equal to the story / job jump potions + a bit extra to cover the potential loss of monthly fees. Money wins, and unfortunately it always will. I get to make that clear today after the holidays back to some customers, so it will not be fun but it's what comes down the ladder.
They can't, I'm not saying it is right but some can't stop, and they'll take full advantage of that. If you come back and realize your character is deleted, then they say "you can't recover, but you can remake them." you're either going to fork out the cash or you're going to say screw it. With as addicted as some seem to be with this game, I'd bet they would put out the money. When you take those numbers up to the higher ups, beyond Yoshi-P & Co. the kicker is they do not care one bit about a single person. Someone saying they'll quit is like taking a grain of sand out of the beach.
Say if 50 people quit and delete their characters, come back only to find they have to re-create. A small number I'm sure will just go all over again, level 1..others will see it and go "I'm not doing this all over again" and leave. The remaining will pay the cash.
It won't get harder to re-gain what you need as things go on. We will get to a point where we can solo older content safely and get glamour items. Right now some people are soloing level 50 content, it will just get easier as we get to 70. OP is right, there is money lost, but the probability that money being gained is higher. She's right, it needs to be removed..just won't. Maybe some good will come from this, maybe they'll increase the number instead of removing it. That's a middle-ground or a starting point of some sort.