I see what you mean. As someone who only does fic and doesn't especially care for anon periods, I totally get how it feels unbalanced.

However, given that the art community has such different concerns and problems (art theft being top among them, but AO3 itself being unfriendly to them as well), we've decided that it's unfair to impose a fic-based anon system on artists, especially if we're serious about including fan artists, and not having art be an afterthought.

Hopefully I'll be able to explain that clearly in the art post. I hope it's not too off putting to people.