I accepted your challenge. I tried to play the role of the writer facing a room full of fans at a PR event. If I were asked this question by a someone in the room, what answer would I come up with on the spot?
So this is all just fun speculation and spit-ballin'. Not meant to be THE definitive explanation.
What we know: Replicants are biological. They have emotions. They are bred as a source of labour, pleasure, etc.
Physically, there is nothing to stop them from being 'tagged' somehow. So the reason for it must be something social.
It's not hard to think that there would be a movement to consider them as human and deserving of a minimum of respect and consideration as such. That's not really a stretch. For decades and decades we've accepted and believed that, even though we still use farm animals for food, clothing, etc., they deserve humane treatment during their lifetime.
The idea of "branding" a class of (near) humans -- who presumably work and live alongside real humans and form relationships -- might be considered repugnant. It calls up images of the likes of Nazis who forced those they considered lesser humans -- Jews, homosexuals, etc -- to wear badges that identified them.
Or, to reverse the idea, perhaps they aren't branded or identified as 'less than human' out of a sense of collective guilt by humans who knowingly exploit them.
The other reason might be pragmatic. It's not clear if Replicants can identify each other. If they could then they might develop a sense of shared community -- one that resents their status in life as manufactured labour. By not making them somehow 'different' from real humans, they are kept mollified that they are considered as equals... at least in deep space.
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