I’m no collector of apparel but I do appreciate the large amount of apparel options CCP gave us as I give each of my characters a unique set for their picture.
As one character can only equip so many items, the amount of ISK used for one portrait is limited. 
I agree that recolours are lazy, but lazy isn’t necessarily bad. It means CCP can offer more different apparel for the same amount of hours.
As long as they do occasionally introduce new pieces of apparel as well, I wouldn’t say there is something wrong with recolours.
And CCP does occasionally introduce new models: the recent commander dresses have unique models for each faction.