So, I know that palette swaps were just a cheap way to make more characters, but I wonder if there is, of if ppl have come up with a good explanation for it within the game lore.

For instance:
*It makes sense for Kitana, Mileena and Jade to have a sort of uniform since the all work for shao kahn. same for cyrax, sektor and smoke as cyber lin kuei
*smoke and both sub zeroes are lin kuei, so it makes sense they have an uniform as well.
*noob saibot was sub zero, so he's still wearing his lin kuei uniform

other than that, things get weird:
*why would scorpion be wearing a lin kuei uniform, maybe to sort of dishonour sub-zero or something? or maybe there's a historical reason why the shirai ryu uniform is similar to the lin kuei's?
*Reptile, Ermac and Rain were all working for kahn, so again, uniform, but why similar to the lin kuei's and/ or shirai ryu's?
*if bi han died and became noob saibot, why would he bother updating his uniform to match the new lin kuei uniform in mk3? same for scorpion, if he's hellbent on revenge, why keep up with the lin kuei's fashion trends
* what the hell were reiko and tanya dressed like shao kahn's ninja minions for? maybe kahn borrowed the uniform designs from edenia after his invasion?
*chameleon and khameleon???????????????????????????

I know this is an useless discussion because that's something the developers didn't care about at the beginning of the franchise, also, not only did the franchise start to individualize these charcters from mk4 onwards, but also the mk reboot did away with that having ever happened during the original three games further establishing that this resemblance has no canon explanation, no hidden meaning behind it.

regardless, I'd love to come up with a decent explanation that is perhaps better than just ignoring it. help?