Thinking about the factories in China, that's a good point. Those people are working for meager wages... so when they can sell a recolor, it's likely a real boost to their making ends meet with their family, food, home, etc. Anyway, there are a LOT of complicated legal and social issues involved, and I doubt we'll be solving them in this thread.
I'd also note that Hasbro isn't at the helm of Botcon or the exclusives. Those toys are expensive because they're a short run and have their own toolings (heads) and packaging. The factory pressing a handful of toys is pricey. (When those costs are spread across tens of thousands of figures, price goes down.) For the collector, it's "acceptable" to get exclusives at a higher price for the rarity — and to get characters specifically geared for the fandom instead of children. Seriously, Botcon doesn't hate you — it's more expensive to make a short run of toys.... oh yeah, and to defer the cost of renting a convention center for the weekend.
Bottom line, convention toys are a compromise, but if they can be kept "kinda" affordable, we all win. Really. It's nice looking in that box of con exclusives to see a lot of dark, muted color "grown-up" looking designs (G2 set excepted, LOL)... and fan-nod characters like Alpha Trion, Nightbeat, Punch/Counterpunch... and don't forget where we got most of our femme-bots!
I guess bottom line, I like supporting the teams that put these sets together for us, and Hasbro... but I also will pick up some KO items that I don't expect Hasbro or Botcon to ever release... like that nice classics G1 Breakdown. If they choose not to release the toy, I don't feel bad picking it up.
As I've mentioned before, I wish they'd find avenues to release the repaints/retools we want — various toy conventions and store exclusives, etc. (like the seekers in a consistent size class... in a collectors box!? Wouldn't that be nice.
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