Regardless of what our monthly server costs are, you have to keep in mind all the other costs, such as paying our wonderful development team. A lot more goes into creating, hosting and maintaining a large server like CubeCraft.
Unfortunately with the EULA, cosmetic items are one of (if not the) only way we can give perks to those players who buy ranks. We are working on some fun ways for players, both with and without ranks, to earn more interesting and fun cosmetics in the future.
Going to lock this thread before it turns into a very unnecessary debate :P