I have also tried this experiment and I am not sure it is such a rumor as another poster suggests, when I built the starting points map... the final character started with 4 recipes. The recipes did go down after about a couple rapid re-rolls, so I am thinking this penalty is in place just for that reason.
I'm pretty sure it was common knowledge that Jordi had been saying if there was enough demand for a seperate PvP server, he would try to make it a reality.. In my opinion, that demand during the previous two weeks was there, and he went for it. When the announcement was made, we found out that people didn't want a seperate PvP server, they actually wanted one server with their idea of a ruleset, so he took the PvP server away...
My question is, who changed their mind? Jordi, or the playerbase?