That's what I'm saying, The low percentage shows that that effort it would take to do that doesn't guarantee anything. So why not have people who really wanted support the decision? Hell, if an artist wants to make edits of my stuff with lighter skin in their own time I'll put it in the game as an option no cost. It's just one layer right? Shouldn't take much time and apparently it would massively increase their enjoyment of the game according to your statistics.
I'm a technician IRL and if I do any work outside of a few courtesy things I charge. It might not be full price but I do charge and I won't blame any professional from having the same standards. That's how professionals work, some are bit more charitable than others but that's an exception not the rule
Also it's not baffling about the skin choice, it what I picked. Again, If people want it changed that fine but they have to show me a tangible way. I don't go off hearsay, as a solo dev I have my roadmap that I stick to with little deviation unless it shows an immediate return on investment, which is not proven by skin tone alone.
If the game fails because of not having the defaul skin tone being lighter, then it deserves to fail and I'll just go to the drawing board again. But I promise you and I'm not saying this to be condescending for anything, your proof is anecdotal at best. Summertime saga isn't super popular because of the way to make character looks, people meme at how silly he looks. It's because of its dynamic gameplay and CG's.