Mirroring this sentiment. It's an extremely cheap marketing trick, and anti-consumer.
Would like to add my support for this. One of the key reasons my friend doesn't play very much (and outright refuses to play his Criminal entirely), is because there's no option to upgrade his Enforcer's character-bound customization items (vehicles, clothing, etc) to account-bound (which would allow him to access these things on his Criminal).
Understandably, these things are more complicated than just flipping a switch like with weapons. Faction restrictions, character sex, etc. However, it's something that the team should really look into implementing at some point.
Mirroring what many others have already stated, there is no reason whatsoever to remove items from ARMAS. That serves no purpose other than to further limit your potential profits, when you're already in a position that profit is questionable.