1) Why would a team think that the brand awareness values of their main kit are so poor that they need to replace them every time they take part in a higher profile event?
2) How much revenue does any team get from replica kit sales? Does it ever amount to more than a tiny proportion of team budget? Anyone got any data on this?
I think part of the problem on point 1 is team kit design is so beholden to sponsors teams acquire, some of whom come and go in the blink of a eye even mid season, the teams probably dont see their main kit as being their identity anymore, its just the latest ad campaign for the sponsor, so they are happy to chop and change to suit the sponsors, and give them a little extra boost of clicks or interest around their big profile events. Although Trek did run with a special TdF/TdFF kit last year so arent immune to this fad, their latest kit is more a fundamental change of title sponsor, how long lived this iteration of their jersey is, we shall see.
on point 2, I assume the marketing bods run the numbers and dont see theres much value, though I suspect alot of old school velominati rule thinking comes into it, there are absolutely teams replica kit Id buy and Im astounded teams dont see that opportunity exists to make that a revenue stream for them. Its better than it was 20 years ago for sure, but I think theres still a long way they could go.