I wonder if they could tie the old belt slot into character customisation.

They said they could not seperate the Au Ra horns from their face because there were not enough slots to save these options.

While the belts were not visible - they had to save and transmit which one you wore - you could see them when you inspected other players.

So it should be possible to equib for example a body tattoo item in a hidden slot through the aesthetican? Or scars. Or a birthmark. Or whatever.