I don't think there's a major toy company that'd ever do that. It'd cost them a fortune. Toybiz makes their money selling cases of 12 figures to stores. If they sold cases of 11 they'd lose money.
Also I disagree that AOA Sabretooth is the poorest in the series, I think he's rather well done. Looks just like the artwork. I just hate the story he's from, though it's a popular storyline. AOA Wolverine is the worst by far, imo. Ant Man's no prize, either.
Also, they're not clogging the shelves everywhere. We've gotten the Walmart Wave here a bunch of times and there's maybe one AOA sabretooth hanging around.
Yeah I agree it was harsh putting the last piece with a variant, even an even packed one.