John, you're missing the point altogether. The beard thing is about hypocrisy. They're obsessed with beards when it doesn't make sense to be. There's no prohibition on beards in the bible, and they claim to be lead solely by the bible. In fact there's explicit instruction in the bible that men have beards, and they use an adjacent verse to justify their prohibition on tattoos. Hypocrites. They say they rely on bible principles and leave things to the conscience of their members where the scriptures aren't clear, yet they ban beards. Hypocrites. They criticize other religions for violating Paul's instruction not to go beyond the things written in scripture, yet they ban beards. Hypocrites. It's such an insane place for them to make a stand, and as such it stands out. It's possibly one of the clearest places to see how rigid and intrusive their control is. And when you understand how cult brainwashing works, it begins to make perfect sense. The beard ban is one of the places where the cult exposes itself in every way for what it is.
Another thing that makes the beard ban such a sticking point is that it's something that no one has any emotional attachment to. No one has died refusing to grow a beard for the cult, so there's hesitance to accept that the ban may be wrong due to a refusal to accept that people died for nothing (as there is with the blood ban). Adding to that the explicit biblical ban on shaving, and the fact that many men would like to grow a beard it leaves this issue as a unique seam that can allow someone to start to break into the cult mind control.