Except that it completely phases out hundreds of hours of work they put into making all of the appearances for all of the equipment when suddenly everyone is running around in slave girl outfits and tight sith warrior pants.
This is something you should have to earn since it does in fact make many hours of careful alterations, concept drawing, and artistry get VERY shoved aside.
Also in case you hadn't noticed any MMO that deals in gear like this mysteriously LACKS this feature? because they put a lot of time and energy into the appearance of each piece. If you're playing CoH or whatever where they don't have to make the visual correspond to the stats and such where once they make it it's done instead of coding it to match an equippable item.
I understand the desire to have this control but I also understand these things don't just happen. I also understand that because this is something you want this big *** shortcut to that it's worth pursueing as an unlockable. Maybe make it a global unlock for those with less than enough drive to actually earn anything but this should not be a standard especially not for free trial accounts who spend a week watching the cutscenes and then quit.