In my mind, a good solution to this would be for WGT's Art Department to redevelop all the Flash avatars for PCEA as clothing separates (hat, shirt/blouse, pants/skirt, shoes) that have no attributes. Then, for those players that already own one or more previously-purchased outfits, automatically unlock the Appearance tab for free.
They don't have to do all the Flash avatars at once. But my thought is that if they have time to develop Valentine's Day outfits and St. Patrick's Day outfits, they could certainly spend some of that time converting the current avatars.