It’s not “obsolete” for set characters, which is what this is if they have pre-established stories and personalities.
It is. Even Diablo had male and female characters while having lore behind them. It's not that hard. They even acknowledged that they could offer it as micro transaction, so this whole "they're actual characters" argument already flies right out of the window.
That’s not how budgets nor gamedev work. It’s not up to individual developers to just add huge amounts of content to a game that hasn’t been budgeted for.
Look. It's not that hard to adjust armor & animations to character models nowadays. A lot of tools do most of the work even all on their own already, assuming you prepared for this with a solid base already. Even game modders do this. You're just looking for excuses.