How does Punk cost more than Rey?

They give Rey the arm sleeve and all of his ink is in black and white. On Punk, they have to do the entire arm and most of it is in color.

Likewise, I assume the reason Cena can get a hat, shirt, and tags every time is due to the fact that his attire is so simple and he has zero ink.

I completely agree with what you are saying, but ultimately Rey doesn't have full tat sleeves in black, wheras Punk has full coloured sleeves. (My theory)

Don't forget Punk's chest tattoo too. While rey also has tats, punk's are mostly colored in.

because im sure black tats are cheaper than colored. hence why basics have black tats.

Not sure if I can explain it correctly, but every color they use costs them money. Rey's tats are all black so the color machine only has to hit it once. While Punk gets several hits from the color system.

They could give Punk a shirt, but he eats up a lot of the budget already just for the intricate deco on his arms and chest alone. You gotta figure that Cody comes with his duster and Jericho his glowing jacket as it is in this set. We haven't seen 'em yet, but they're probably some of the higher-end stuff as far as the Elite line goes. As already stated, Rey has mostly monochrome tats whereas Punk's have little details filled in with all sorts of vibrant colors, and his attires over the years have gotten extra little details and stripes and things that add to his cost. For E15 Rey, they didn't even give him a shirt; just the entrance mask. For E18 Rey, they just recycled the old E13 half-shirt.

It just depends who is eating the budget in that particular Elite set. HTM in E21 is going to be astronomically expensive to make for an Elite figure (full jumpsuit AND guitar), so expect someone else in E21 to take the hit with accessories. Come to think of it, AJ is in that set and doesn't come with anything. There you go.

Hopefully we'll see an exclusive RSC Hitman Punk at SDCC this year that has the works.

i'd rather Punk's Elite figures have no color tattoos if it meant i could get cloth shirts.
i display them with the shirts on anyway

punk has a huge tatoo on his chest, in colour - his arms have a lot of detail, again, in colour - rey just has standard tatooes which dont cover an area, just single tatooes placed in certain places that dont have to be coloured in.

No, no, no, no, dear God, NO!

That would be awful. Elites should be as accurate as possible to the person, add ons be damned