[Swizec]

> I have a hard time believing it's nothing more than a cost cutting measure.

It's a "keep bricks interchangeable" measure. Every LEGO set designer gets a budget of a few new piece suggestions per year. This includes color and paint schemes.

From a Verge article on how a new set happens: https://www.theverge.com/c/23991049/lego-ideas-polaroid-ones...

> And those teams came up with one simple idea to stem the tide of complexity: “frames.”

> Want a part in a different color? That costs designers a frame. A new piece? Spend some frames. Bring back an old out-of-print piece? That’s a frame, too. Every year, design leads like Scott are given a limited number of frames that they can spend on their entire portfolio for physical pieces that aren’t readily at hand. “If I have five products or 10 products coming out, I need to allocate where those frames go,” says Scott.