While I'm also not super-excited about the bike, you have to realise that (1) a lot of people actually wanted and requested it and (2) the ingame dev-team and the mogstation-people or two seperate things. Creating mogstation content doesnt take away from ingame-content.

You're talking a lot about how character creation and the look of your character is the most important aspect of the game... for you.
Please notice that that doesnt has to be the case for everyone - I for once never understood fantasia-addicts and people change the look fo their character every other week. (I might be a bit extreme though - I love my character and wouldnt want to change her)
My point is: They need to find a balance between dungeons, raids, cosmetics, mounts, trials, glamour and so on and so on. Things that take a lot of time - like character creation - but dont create a lot of playtime are probably low on their list for that very reason.
Do you truely believe that your friends stopped playing because there arent more facial options and no buttslider? Or did they stop playing because there was no content they could play?