The problem with Variant skins

So, with the latest skin leak, whether they turn out to be true or not, I feel this needs to be said. Hopefully Riot changes how it works around these issues, but hopes are low.

Our original Variant skins were the Pajama Guardians, to which many people, including myself, were immensely bothered by. Riot listened to complaints and lowered the price. Now this is where the first problem arises. Now for those that didn't get the skins initially when they came out were not affected by this. In fact only those that bought the bundle packs were, but many bought the packs for this very reason, which were the borders that were provided with the purchase of the bundles with the exclusive icon. Here lies the problem, these bundles were expensive, so if you got them, you were paying a lot more for a border/icon. So, even if the PJ SG are discounted, they still aren't that great for people who bought the bundle and have the icon, as they are a lot less worth it than the original Star Guardians (this being only true for gen 2, as gen 1 had no borders).

Now, the leaks showed that they were going to be releasing another variant skinline, KDA On Vacation or something along those lines. Here's the problem. Prestige skins. Now yes, you could have bought the originals, and then gotten the prestige later, but why settle for something less? I have to assume that KDA will be getting the same treatment as SG in that the originals and those skins will be treated as two separate skins, yet 2 sides of the same coin. If that's the case, why would you go and get the "On Vacatiion" skins, if you already have the prestige versions? Are you just going to turn this into another chance to milk KDA Prestige? Or are you going to go ahead and release these variants knowing that many have something better? It doesn't seem smart from a business standpoint imo, even if you discount them. Me? I'll never buy PJ SG unless is SEVERELY on sale unless its gen 1, since i dont have borders for those. Same will be said for KDA. As much as I love both skinlines, buying variants when I already have better ones is a waste. Honestly Riot, if you want to do variants, great, but do them the same time you release skins, like you did with Lancer Blitz and Eclipse Leona, so people can choose which they like better without having wasted money on a previous version with no way to refund. You need to be fairer to your customers Riot, and the best way to do that is to give them a fair shot at choosing one or the other or even both, but not making them have both so they can have the one they like if its the newer one.

Either change how you release these variants, or give people the option for refunds on the older ones when you do. And please address prestige editions and borders.