Probably the same thing that is up with them only charging $10 for two figs. I'm surprised these are new figures at all for that price - they can easily put all of them in the basic line and charge $7 a piece. For $3 more, you get a second fig AND a comic - just be happy they're making some rarer comic figs that probably would never have seen the light of day if not for this line.
They could... But would they sell individually packaged without the "comic promotion" that kind of gives you a clue who they are? I'm not so sure on that one, and I dont' think Hasbro is positive either. They've said in Q&A's that the comic line was a surprise hit at retail for them, probably surpassing their idea of what's popular I'd guess, and so we're getting more and that's great... The price increase, also noted in the Q&A, was for more articulation, so that's good... In my area Target's I think charging $12 and WM are $10.59 or something? It's not that bad an increase (for me anyway) if the payoff is better figures overall in terms of quality.
I will say though, anything you package together comes up cheaper... Other companies are doing it, Indiana Jones is seemingly going to try this as well... It's a little cost-effective for the company to an extent, and I'd expect to see that passed along somewhat.
But to the point of ankles but no knees, I can't see a single positive argument as to why ANY figure should have ankle articulation but no knee articulation. The ankles can be done without while the knees are a more important point for poseability... It's a tough thing to argue really, as figures with neutral leg/feet sculpting but knee articulation make for pretty poseable figures (DS Gunner, Clone Pilot, etc.), while a figure with just ankle articulation is really rather pointless... And there's lots of those in the comic pack, for some reason.
Durge, I'll find disappointing then... I still love the original Deluxe Durge, and it's still a favorite figure of mine. This is neat looking, but without knees it'll fall quite short in coolness for me I'm afraid. Ani looks interesting, but given the Ani's I've bought lately, I'm not sure I quite care about this one much.