Actually, power customization is something that Paragon Studios and Cryptic were both trying to do for the game since back before City of Villains launched, when both studios were together.

The issue was the way the powers were coded, and a complete rewrite of the powers coding was necessary for it to even be possible, so I'd imagine this was being worked out way before Champions came about with their hue shifter, or probably even before Cryptic Studios departed from Paragon Studios.