I don’t think even the initial suits were ever intended to be seen as-is on screen, though. There may have been some tests, but they had decided on CGI for the movies, it seems like. Most of the suit designs couldn’t even exist in wearable form in the real world (wrong proportions, thicknesses, etc.). They made some suits for reference for the CGI, and wearable bits for close-ups, though not much of either for later films.
But yeah, I guess it was more about getting a specific look and practicality rather than time and cost. Which makes the replicas all the more impressive.
