JDGHOST: Less work involved no editing of the actual playability.
This might have been plausible rationale prior to apparel being released, but WGT has shown just how easy it is to change clubs yardages even in small increments by using silver coins to upgrade distances on every club from wedges to driver. These changes all tend to lengthen distances not shorten them however, which for some wedges individuals may prefer.
Go into apparel foxwind I believe and put on the magic pants and depending on the points earned you can start increasing wedge yardages - which also impacts the irons PW I believe ( maxed out mine go from 120 100 75 50 to 129 107 81 54) . So as easily as swapping out some silver coins people can alter default clubs. Now a lot of people already feel dialed in with wedge yardages so they prefer not to change these, but it can be done easily enough.
Obviously by allowing everything from playability out of rough, bunkers, meter speeds, club distances, they can change what they want to change. But it will likely cost you more to play thousands of coin games to unlock the desired apparel.
I will wager some people spend more credits in ball use trying to max out their driver than it would cost them to spend 10,000 credits on such a driver in the pro shop - but the micro transactions of constantly playing trivial coin games literally thousands upon thousands of times - forces you to either use a ball you like that may cost more - or play a free ball and earn that equipment enhancements for a fraction of the cost in ball use. Either way, it still gets expensive - and that is their plan it seems.
My point being, changing specs just doesn't seem as a plausible reason, they already demonstrated how easily that can be done.