mmhm, sounds that their QM was the initiating part and not playerfeedback...
QA are always for - "Let's do less content, but with better quality". It is their favorite wording.
These costumes was not recieved well by players, that is why nobody was intrested in defending them, when QA asked for removal. It is normal process in game development, when team have to make a desicion about new content versus fixes of existing features.
That is why players feedback is quite critical. when it comes to "Let's invest art resources into this costume".