Really? Changing your character model deletes all progress?

I had like 40k and over level 15 rep for the factions. Decided to change my character model and clicked through the warning like everyone always does when those pop up. yeah, I know its my fault, but why implement that? I chose a random when i started, then I'm just stuck with it unless I fully restart. The only thing to stop it is a message box that I bet over half of people would click through. I don't know why someone would want to reset all progress, but I'm sure there's people out there that would. I just don't get why changing character model and resetting all progress has to be tied together. Pretty much ruined my night and made want to stop playing for the night.