It is also a choice . . . you don't seem to have very much of an open mind. While you could look at it just as though the support is FORCED to buy all of these things, the team is FORCED to make a decision that can both hurt and gain ground. Make the support fall even more behind, or give the advantage the team needs to win lane or something of the sort. If the support that bought elixirs or maybe potions for their adc loses lane it is a major disadvantage.
You also seem to think that sustain comes free, which is never true. While this being on the table, the current meta for a support is to buy items that support the type of gameplay that i needed along with the fact they need to keep their adc alive. The only person that is actually suggesting that supports will be a bitch role (Lol as if supports all ready aren't in that sort of position) is you. Not to mention, why does this matter? In an actual team of five, in ranked your goal is to win a game. In order to win a game, you need to assist your team. And why not have more ways to assist your team, because you are afraid of the supports having more of a supportive possibility?