Couldn't agree more with your point about costs and the Patcham High example. Unreasonable request with a significant impact on the pockets of parents.
I don't think your example though bears any relation to the original post though, which is a load of old guff.
From the Telegraph atricle on the same:
Explaining why he brought in the uniform change, headteacher Mr Smith said: "Pupils have been saying why do boys have to where ties and girls don't, and girls have different uniform to boys.
"So we decided to have the same uniform for everybody from Year...