As an aside, I don't think that concepts such as male viera are much of a stretch to begin with. The idea that not a single male viera decided to take his leave of the forest would be far more jarring to me.

It's also interesting how this sort of strict adherence to the lore isn't really applied across the board. For example, up until recently it was believed that there was no cure for Tempering and that traveling between worlds was nigh impossible - but both situations proved to not be the case as the story evolved.

I'd also note that the game has a very sizeable number of role-players. The sort who prefer to play inhabitants of the game world within the confines of the lore. So you might see someone play a Hingan merchant, a Buduga warlord or a Garlean Pureblood. These individuals generally don't play as the Warrior of Light. The MSQ's are just a 'what if' scenario to them, as they see the canon Warrior of Light as being the guy from the cinematics and promotional footage.

Personally I'd be fine with more options to support role-play. They're generally subscribed to the game even through dry patches with little to no new content.