What really makes it a bad design choice is the fact that the sai is an optional weapon.

I don't even have the sai in any of her variations, so having it as a customizable item is lost on me.

I said the same thing few weeks ago... Some characters have great customization options (like Cetrion - I love her gear). But damn, why the Sai? It has some pretty good design too but as you said, it's not used at all and not visible and if used...it glows pink too so the whole Sai is always the same...

I actually had an idea of Mileena being Kitana's skin variation, so it would make a bit bigger sense since Kitana already uses one fan like a dagger and also in the end of Kitana's brutality she says "that was fantastic" with her head moving forward like showing off her teeth.

..I guess we'll see...But YUP, sai as customizable item is just...meh

There's a lot of nonsensical customizable options where I felt they were really struggling and reaching to make that 3 customizations quota. D'Vorah has her bugs which you can barely see anyways during a fight. No one is gonna fight a D'Vorah and go "OMG he has THAT bug variant!?! Jealous!" Or Noob Saibot's shadow buddy where it's only his bandolier.

It's becoming more evident that with as much as they want to accomplish for a game, a 2-year deadline is not enough. Yet, they continue to cram all this development into a short amount of time.

I doubt Warner Bros. is making them release a game every two years, as I'm certain they can afford to wait longer, so I honestly think it's just laziness on NRS's part.

Tnh I actually like the idea of Kitana having a 'mournful' variation in every game. I do agree that the Sai should have been included in the intros if it was that important and I would have rather had hair customization than anything else.

Isn’t that 16 Bit who made that dumb ass choice? Its like giving Guile’s moves to RYU in Street fighter lol