Fair points. But this can't go without response.
There is plenty of talk about these sorts of things. You mention synchro swimming, a sport I don't know a lot about. Do fans of the sport know famous competition swimsuit designers? Because I bet GS fans know costume designers, because that gets brought up a lot.
Were you around for the Nathan Chen costume discussions? Because, if people truly didn't care about costuming other than how they made the skater feel comfortable and confident, they certainly had a lot to say that Nathan's costumes drifted towards athletic-looking basic black without a lot of blingy adornment.
I guess it depends on what one means by 'plenty'. IMO there's far more talk of jumps and other elements, coaching switches, result/CoP fairness and other things, compared to costume talk. There's a thread for best costumes of the year or something like that, at the end of each season, but I don't consider that excessive talk. If other sports like car racing or vault were performed in costumes, I bet there would be discussion about those as well, simply because humans are visual beings, and when they see something interesting and worth commenting on (like Shmuratko's shirts with images on them), they will. It's more fun than repeatedly arguing about jump techniques and bans, so why not lighten the mood?
It's not like FS results are determined by costumes, and neither is the public liking a skater or not.
Try as I might, I don't see why knowing a few names of costume designers should be a sign that FS is less of a sport, or that it's degraded into something resembling beauty pageants (the latter of which you didn't say, but I get a distinct impression from your posts that something like this is what fancy costumes evoke for you). I myself know just two, and they're Japanese, Ito and Orihara, because they get mentioned sometimes by fans of two of my biggest favorites. It might have something to do with the popularity of fashion/clothes making/decoration in Japan in general, I don't know.
I don't know if Nathan is a good example here, because there's no telling whether those who criticized him for his simple costumes really minded the costumes so much, or if it was a substitute reason & they just wanted to criticize something. Other guys who tend to prefer simple unadorned costumes aren't mentioned much, if at all, in this respect, like Sadovsky for instance. My own favorite is wearing a plain black shirt from a store for the SP this season, and doesn't get discussed for that either. So I guess I don't see the big deal in having skaters wear whatever they feel suits their skating/expresses the programs the best.
Also, if you're trying to tell a story to global general public, it's often a good idea to make your costume fit that music to make sure the ignorant majority gets an idea of what you're skating about. 'Geisha' soundtrack and some Japanese-style gestures may not do the same trick a kimono style costume does when it's your average Joe in front of the screen.
