It's really crappy they they didn't just include this head and sword with the basic figure, too. I don't want to buy two Flashpoint Batmen just to have a single figure with both the cowl and sword.
McFarlane is obsessed with variants, as his Mortal Kombat and Spawn figures show. It's economics. The expenses of coming up with new bodies for every figure adds up after a while, so he does little stunts like this to make back more off them. See also: the lame green slime Arkham figure repaints or the "bloody" Mortal Kombat figures.