You mean the RX 570 and the R9 290?

Why yes.

I mean, I understand some people buy video cards to do things other game, and they may like something cheaper than a prosumer card because their workflow is VRAM constrained. But let's be real here, did they really release such cards for those people? And if so, why wasn't it heavily hinted as such?

Just make them all 8 and 12GB VRAM cards  

jk - mah wallet