Hmm, no. Programing NPCs to know if your character is male or female and recording some extra lines of dialogue is not a difficult task (I'm not talking about modding, this is a game with a big-ass budget developed over the better part of a decade). It would take less resources than modelling one of those intricate suits of armor just strewn about Hogwarts as decorations.
I've worked in games since well before the troonpocalypse happened and not bothering with gendered alt lines (unless it actually adds something or happens in like one cutscene), just like dovetailing dialogue trees or calling you Chosen One or whatever, was always standard since nobody ever gave a shit. Now that people suddenly started giving a shit, changing that practice would actually be the political move, if you think about it.
Even if money isn't a factor it multiplies the time budget requirement more than you think. If you're under the impression VOs are captured in one take, lol (Bethesda notwithstanding).
It's more than just doubling up as well because you don't just need two good takes rather than one, you need two good takes that more or less have parity between them. And if you have other alt lines for other reasons (say for multiple quest endings or an alignment system, or both) now either they're awkward because you have to avoid referring to the player character entirely during those or it's multiplicative. This also applies to changing or adding stuff.
These guys are almost always outside talent who may not have unlimited time for your contract either. I lost a guy you've probably heard of due to this once and I'm still bummed about it.
Those armour props would take an artist less than a day. They'd probably be finished before lunch working from a base model. You can ditch em or swap em out for another asset or pass it over to another artist if you need to (which you probably won't because at certain points in development some of em would be sitting around with nothing better to do). Booth time is finite and chopping up actors is tougher.
This is why I don't like modern gayming letting you choose gender in every game. Gender neutral pozzed faggot ass dialogue.
Personally I just like when characters have some fucking character. Decide if I have a dick or a pussy so other characters can react to it. Give it jiggle physics.
Stuff like Morrowind was alright because they still had a way to give you a relevant backstory but 97% of character creator shit is fucking bland and your customisable appearance never fucking matters anyway after ten seconds once you're done giggling about being pimp shrek
