The NMRA is entirely volunteer organisation. It has no money to spend on development. The development work on DCC and other standards has always been done pro bono, by people most of whom have a day job. If you want NMRA's DCC standards to prevail, do not buy by price, but by conformance warrant. Tell the seller that if it doesn't have a CW, you're not interested.
Please note that the NMRA is a _consumer_ organisation. Model railroading is AFAIK unique in that what standards there are have been consumer driven, not industry driven.
NMRA does have a paid staff to run the headquarters, but there are barely enough of those to keep the membership lists current and to (very slowly) catalogue the Kalmbach Library holdings, which are growing faster than they can be catalogued. (Wanna spend a couple weeks of you vacation helping out?)
If you want the NMRA to "spend some money", it's up to you to provide the money to spend. You could start by becoming a member. :-)
Actually, coupler height depends on car bolster depth and truck bolster height, for which NMRA has specified standards, too. Axle lengths for wheels and truck side-frame spacing, so that any wheels will fit any truck. These two sets of standards and RPs are ignored by many mfrs, unfortunately.
Electrical: isolation of metal couplers from metal frames. Correct electrical connections so that locos will run in the same direction when on the ssame track. Isolation of the motor from metal frame when the engine is equipped with DCC.
And all because back the the late 1930s a few modellers got together, decided that it was important to have standards so they could run their stuff on each other's layouts, and formed the NMRA. Model Railroader, founded by Al Kalmbach in 1934, has always been a strong supporter of the NMRA, BTW.
You will find all Standards and RPs on the NMRA website, nmra.org. They are worth studying. Apart from dimensions, they pretty well follow prototype practice, and for the same reasons: to enable interchange of equipment.
HTH