Well one issue of having a re-skin item is its value. I mean if the original version was sold for a good amount of AC and it was meant to be rare, meaning players who bought the item bought it with real money.
Reasons are: they like the item; it is going rare; AC item means less players would have it (because some don’t like over-used items); etc.
Having a re-skin of an item and making it non-ac tagged, non-member, and making it “permanent” will make the original item lose its value. They could have at least make its value closer to the old ones (like naval re-skins still being sold for overpriced AC?).
Its like that Miltonius issue back then when players have gotten mad making the pricey 2500 AC OG items and changing it to 1 easy farming Totem lol.
Yes i know rare isn’t a thing anymore because of the wheel of doom, and i know there has been a lot of re-skin for the game being 12 years old. And i know AE doesn’t care about its community and are only there for the $$$.