Not a dev, just a (increasingly less so because of the game bineg a mess) player, but it might:
a) Mean you shouldn't pair these toons, an inverse of many toons/talis that get extra if paired.
b) Get changed to another passive/effect later on (moonkiddos got reworked).
c) Corresponding cosmic could only work if paired, and offer a "Different" (eugh) enough playstyle to fit the theme.
Still, "Remove all but 1 of each type of beneficial and negative effect, including Golden and Silver effects, and all but 1 random permanent Stat Increase, from all characters at the start of each team’s turn." seems more like a negative, so we are just seeing a new subset of toons without having to come up with a new icon (Cosmics just being a random color with +advantage against everything was already lazy, but this is a new low).